Jack Doohan vented his frustration at Alpine after being eliminated from the first part of the sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix.
The Australians have been constantly scrutinized this season as Franco Colapinto was in the Alpine Reserve, and the team’s principal, Oliver Oaks, has repeatedly said that Duhan is in Imola’s car “as it is today,” but the team is constantly evaluating the driver. These comments came before Doohan was knocked out in the pit lane as they were released along with teammate Pierre Guthrie.
“That’s not acceptable,” Duhan initially messed up team radio. “If you’re going to send him (Gasthy) before me, you need to make sure he’s ready.
“I can’t get out because he’s coming into me, I have to turn. Then you kicked me out of Q1. That’s a joke.”
These comments came shortly after missing the checker flag and unable to start a final time-time lap, but Doohan later explained that he was frustrated that the issue was due to self-intrusion.
“It all comes down to the last flying lap. We think it was good. I felt good and I was blocked on my way out of the pit lane. This was a mess from the other cars.
“So they’re going to make that length longer. You’ve got a lot better by 2 laps and 2 laps and I ended up as the last car out there and I didn’t have the chance to do a second time lap.
“The first lap was really, really troublesome. I tried a few different things from practice, but it wasn’t too bad. I think I had more time in the car on the second lap.
Despite his rage, Duhan says the silver lining is a sprint weekend and will have another opportunity to qualify in a better position on Saturday.
“Try to move forward as much as possible,” he said. “We have another shot in qualifying tomorrow afternoon. The sprints will be tough. We need to learn as much as possible for the main race and focus on the main qualifying.”