Jack Doohan to make F1 debut with $50m payday hanging over his head

If Jack Doohan was hoping to ease his way into his F1 career, he's straight up out of luck.

In his first outing as a race driver at this weekend's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Doohan will have an eight-figure payday hanging over his head.

And he's going to start his first race from deep in the field, having qualified slowest early Sunday morning (AEDT).

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Max Verstappen has already sealed a fourth-straight driver's championship, but Doohan's Alpine team are in an almighty fight for sixth place in the Constructor's (teams) Championship.

They're five points ahead of Haas, and further eight ahead of RB. While the exact breakdown of prize money is a secret heavily guarded by the FIA, losing sixth place would cost the team somewhere in the realm of $50 million.

Considering Alpine will end its own engine program at season's end to save money, it's fair to say missing out on such a payday would be a huge blow to the team. It would also likely have ramifications on Doohan's maiden full-season next year.

That's assuming he's even on the grid for the first race in Melbourne.

There are also whispers the team's financial situation could cost Doohan his full-time drive in favour of Franco Colapinto.

The young Argentinian was shoehorned into Williams mid-season after that outfit finally had enough of the perpetually under-performing and crash-prone Logan Sargeant. 

In just his second race, Colapinto scored points. Without a full-time drive for 2025, that performance put him on the radar of just about every team up and down pit lane. 

On top of his raw pace, Colapinto would also bring with him significant financial backing from wealthy Argentinian sponsors.

Having said that, three massive crashes across two race meetings in Brazil and Las Vegas took some of the sheen off his glittering earlier performances. Already put off by the $30-odd million price tag Williams put on his head, the crashes led Red Bull to withdraw their interest altogether.

There has been no such confirmation from Alpine.

The son of former 500cc motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, the 21-year-old will be the 19th Australian to enter in a Formula 1 grand prix, and the 16th to start a race.

Born on the Gold Coast, he'll also be the first Queenslander to make it to the top tier of four-wheeled motorsport.

Like his old man, Doohan started racing on dirt bikes before he made the switch to four wheels after a heavy crash as a kid.

The rest is history.

Doohan's opportunity in Abu Dhabi came about after the team split with the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon a race early.

Ocon had requested permission to be released from his contract immediately following the race in order to drive for his new team in the post-season test only two days later.

Sensing an opportunity to get Doohan in the car, team boss Flavio Briatore gave Ocon an ultimatum: race this weekend and don't test, or test next week and don't race this weekend. Bizarrely, considering he's a race driver, the Frenchman chose the latter.

For what it's worth, Lewis Hamilton asked for a similar release to test for Ferrari on Tuesday, but was denied. He will still race for the tri-star in Abu Dhabi. Carlos Sainz will test for Williams after his early release request was granted.

Although he was already signed for next year, Doohan's elevation into the seat can be viewed through two lenses.

The first is that the team are so invested in Doohan's 2025 campaign they wanted to give him the chance to have a taste of what it's like to be an F1 driver away from the pressures that come with racing in a home grand prix.

Given Doohan is a product of the Alpine Junior Academy – as indeed was Oscar Piastri – this approach would've made the most sense.

But then came Franco Colapinto.

Doohan's debut in Abu Dhabi could also double as something of an evaluation – a shoot-out against Colapinto for the drive he's already signed to have for next year.

Should that be the case, and he's booted from his seat before he's barely got comfortable, it would be incredibly harsh. But also very F1.

So what would a successful weekend look like?

While nobody is expecting him to beat or even keep up with teammate Pierre Gasly, is success purely beating Colapinto?

That would be a start. Making it through to at least the second part of qualifying would've been good too, although there are a couple of redeeming factors.

In exactly the same car, Esteban Ocon was slowest last weekend in Qatar, and he'd been in the seat all season.

This was also an incredibly tight qualifying session. Although plum last, Doohan's time was only eight tenths slower than the time set by Charles Leclerc that topped Q1, and only missed Q2 by three tenths.

Looking at those numbers, that's a pretty good effort. After penalties Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon and, crucially, Colapinto are applied, Doohan will line up 17th.

Despite starting the season with the slowest car on the grid, Alpine are now regularly fighting for points. The team's stunning double-podium in Brazil rocketed them up the order in the constructor's standings.

Since the mid-season break, the team has scored the most points outside the leading four teams of McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Having driven thousands of kilometres in the team's simulator, Doohan will know how the car feels. Although Brazil was without doubt an outlier, the car's recent performance proves the potential is there.

But should he succumb to the desert heat and flop, his F1 career could be over before it began. 

No pressure then.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix begins at midnight Sunday.