Alpine dismisses 'noise' around Doohan, but opens door for Colapinto

Not a single Grand Prix goes by without questions being asked about the future of Jack Doohan at Alpine, and the start of the sixth race weekend of the year was no different. This time, the trigger was a radio interview from an Argentine sponsor of Franco Colapinto, who indicated that the youngster would be in the Alpine car in Imola.

Nonsense or not? That was the question posed to Oliver Oakes, the team boss of the French racing team. “I knew that was coming. I saw it [the article], like everyone else. 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’s just noise. Jack needs to continue doing a good job. But it’s natural that there’s always speculation there,” said Oakes.

The logical follow-up question to the British team boss was whether Doohan is definitely in the car in Imola. There, Oakes left the door somewhat open for Colapinto, and . “Yeah, as it is today, Jack is our driver along with Pierre. We’ve been pretty clear on that. We always evaluate, but yeah – today, that is the case.”