“Just not good enough”
Ralf Schumacher criticizes Formula 1 driver
08.05.2025 – 00:26 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Alpine replaced his pilot Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto. The right decision for the earlier “premier class” pilot-which he underlines in hard words.
His first Formula 1 season ran briefly: On Wednesday, Alpine announced that driver Jack Doohan would be replaced by Franco Colapinto after only seven races. The 22-year-old son of the Australian motorcycle legend Mick Doohan was one of four still pointless drivers this season, as well as involved in several accidents.
The former Formula 1 driver and today’s TV expert Ralf Schumacher can understand the decision of the French racing team: “He is certainly a super liver guy-but not good enough for Formula 1,” said the 49-year-old at Sky and referred to the performance of the Australian in the previous race. “He made many mistakes, was overwhelmed – and had a big test program.” However, this did not help: “He got into the alpine with test kilometers in the double -digit thousand area – and it was just not good enough. He tried overtaking maneuvers, where he then built crashs.”
Even more: Doohan made “fatal mistakes”, “that’s why I understand this move from (Alpine team boss) Flavio Briatore. Schumacher also commented on Doohan’s successor:” I’m excited about Colapinto. We saw him how he was in Formula 1, really great – but later three fatal crashs had broken a lot on the weekends. ” Schumacher recalled the last racing weekends in 2024 when Colapinto was involved in accidents in Sao Paulo and Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
The 21-year-old Argentinian was used for Williams in the second half of last season, replacing the hapless Logan Sargeant there. Colapinto even scored five points with appealing performance, but then did not get a cockpit for the new season.
Schumacher also noticed: “Flavio Briatore believes in him – and he also brings a lot of money.” On the day of the announcement of the Colapinto transportation, his big sponsor and sponsor-an online shipping shop from South America-made a new commercial with him.