Alpine driver Jack Doohan to avoid making an 'enemy' of Oscar Piastri in race to F1

Alpine

Alpine driver Doohan to avoid making an 'enemy' of Piastri in race to F1

Alpine has a number of drivers vying to join the F1 grid

Sam Hall

Monday 21 February 2022 14:20

Alpine Academy driver Jack Doohan has resolved not to make an 'enemy' of F2 champion Oscar Piastri and instead learn from his fellow countryman.

Piastri will serve as the reserve driver for the Alpine F1 team this year after scoring a trio of back-to-back titles in Formula Renault Eurocup, F3 and F2.

As regulations do not allow Piastri to return to F2, the manufacturer will instead be represented by Doohan and Olli Caldwell.

Like Piastri, however, the duo will also find the path to F1 blocked should they prove successful.

Asked in a media session including GPFans if he viewed himself as being in "direct competition" with Piastri, Doohan explained: "To be honest, not really.

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"At the moment, I’m going to learn everything I can and take Oscar as someone that hopefully, I can get some information off because he came in as a rookie into a top team last year and did an exceptional job and dominated the championship.

“For now, it would definitely not be the right thing to do to try and compete against Oscar.

“Obviously, we both want to get to Formula 1 and hopefully, at the end of this year, if things go right, I will be but for now I need to learn as much as possible.

“It would not be right to create enemies and try to one-up myself against someone that is very well respected with the academy and with the Formula 1 team.

“Going forward I’m just going to try to use all the resources I have available and at the moment, Oscar is one of them.”

Just 17 drivers from Australia have competed in F1, with both Piastri and Doohan set on increasing this number.

"Not so long ago I viewed Oscar - and I still do but not to that extent - as a competitor and someone that I wanted to beat being a fellow Aussie," added Doohan.

“But I had to come to the realisation that he has done an exceptional job for the past three years and what he has accomplished."