Jack Doohan didn’t lay blame on Liam Lawson for their F1 Miami GP contact, as the Australian’s future with Alpine comes under scanner.
In a bid to showcase their performance delivery, Alpine’s Doohan and Visa Cash App RB’s Lawson fell way short after they came together at Turn 1 on Lap 1 in F1 Miami GP. The Kiwi went for an opening on the outside, when the Australian maintained his inside line going into Turn 1.
Doohan had no space but to move slightly towards his left after running on the kerb. With Lawson so close on the outside, the two made contact which damaged the floor and sidepod of the latter. The Australian suffered puncture and rim damage, where he couldn’t even limp back into the pits.
He retired immediately but didn’t pin the blame on Lawson. The incident was deemed a racing one, as the Kiwi eventually was forced to retire after few laps. “I haven’t seen the replay so I don’t want to come in too much, but it seemed that I was squeezed into Turn 1,” said Doohan to media.
“Nowhere really to go and unavoidable contact and damage. Disappointing, but not much I could do. The damage by the puncture was quite a lot. I was also digging into, I don’t even know what to call it, the front-left Gurney or whatever to help us racing better…damage was too much. We don’t want to put damage onto the track or debris.
“It was quite the journey to get back here, so don’t want to be repeating this one again. It is hard to say when you are in that position obviously, in the moment you’re disappointed and you’re mad, but you never know, he could have had a car on his outside squeezing him. I don’t want to put any blame in any direction. Obviously it didn’t end well for me, which is disappointing.
“I’ll have to also reflect to see if there’s anything that I could do differently, but in this current point, I don’t think there was much [I could have done]. Apart from not straying the main objective, it was obviously good to get my first qualifying in front of my teammate. So these are the small little wins that we have, let’s say. Unfortunate that we have to take from this weekend, but we’ll be carrying that into Imola,” summed up Doohan.
And Lawson added: “I don’t really know what happened. I had a really good launch and a gap opened up through the middle of Turn 1, so I went for it. And then, I felt a hit from the side into Turn 1, I don’t know what happened, I have to watch it back. But it destroyed the floor and then we had to retire.
“It is not a nice feeling when you know that…you know you are waiting for long afternoon, basically waiting for rain and then it is drizzling at points, giving you the tiniest of hope. With the car that’s broken, it was going to be a tough regardless.”
The Lap 1 retirement for Doohan comes at a time when his F1 future is under scanner. Pre-season, there was a number allotted against his name of six races. Now with six races done, reports have indicated that the Australian is most likely to be replaced by reserve driver Franco Colapinto.
The reports suggests that the internal announced at the factory has been made already. It is unclear if Doohan will return to his reserve role, but chances of it happening are good. At the onset of the Miami weekend, team boss Oliver Oakes put down any rumours about replacement.
However, his statement could be interpreted in a way where he solely talks about Miami and not beyond. “I saw it, like everyone else,” said Oakes to media. “I think it was a sponsor from Argentina off-camera giving his view on Franco, when he’s going to be in the car.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of people in Argentina who’d like him in the car this Sunday. We’ve been pretty open as a team that that’s just noise. Jack needs to continue doing a good job. But it’s natural that there’s always speculation there. As it is today [Friday in Miami], Jack is our driver along with Pierre. We’ve been pretty clear on that. We always evaluate, but yeah – today, that is the case.”
Here’s race start and incident: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-miami-grand-prix-pole-sitter-verstappen-fends-off-attack-from-norris-who-drops-to-p6-on-the-race-start.1831222251171539835
Here’s how F1 Miami GP panned out
