Oliver Oakes praised the work of Jack Doohan on his Formula 1 debut in Abu Dhabi. The director of Alpine F1 assures that the Australian, in whom Flavio Briatore does not seem to have much confidence, did the work requested during the last race of the year.
“He did a very good job” Oakes said. “I think I said before the weekend I felt a bit sorry for him because his debut was a bit overshadowed by other knives, but I thought he performed brilliantly. “
“And I think everyone who watched closely saw his rate of improvement throughout the weekend. I think he did particularly well in qualifying.”
“His first run in Q3 was very close to that of Pierre [Gasly]. I think he was a bit unlucky, sort of in his second stint, with the last corner melee, with a few drivers.
“But in the race, I think he did exactly what we needed. He stayed out of trouble. He had a good second stint. And we ran him a little bit to help us. He also has a little slowed down the Haas.”
Oakes was impressed by the way Doohan handled the pressure of the qualifying session, and in particular a tense second run during which he had to work hard to attempt a passage into Q2, which ultimately failed.
“I think that second run in qualifying is probably a bit of a baptism of fire for him, of everything you have to deal with if you're in the queue and you have to jostle. I think he didn't have was lucky either, because [Nico] Hülkenberg was later penalized for overtaking him and the other car.”
“Who knows if things would have been different or not. But I think it's mostly about going through the emotions of a race weekend. And I think we'll have to see early next year whether it helps him or not.”
“I really think Jack deserves a lot of credit this weekend for ignoring all the noise and having a solid weekend. It's a testament to him, really. Besides the fact that he kept his clean nose, showed a little bit of speed and was able to handle everything, he really did a really good job.”
