It’s been a bumpy second year in Formula 2 for Alpine junior Jack Doohan, but after nine rounds, the Australian finally grabbed his first win of the season. Having seen recent improvements with Virtuosi, Doohan took pole around the Hungaroring and converted this into feature race victory. Speaking to Feeder Series and selected media post-race, the 20-year-old sounded relieved to have finally turned his fortunes around.

By Tyler Foster

“It’s honestly what I’ve wanted to do since the start of the year. Coming into [Hungary], and all year, nothing’s really changed in the approach. Obviously, just getting a little bit more resilient with things going on.”

Entering the season as one of the firm title favourites, any expectations for Doohan and Virtuosi had to be curved due to major complications with their car. As the Aussie explains, a “fundamental issue” caused their poor early form, with it not being until the mid-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona–Catalunya in May before things were reset.

“It was a difficult start to the season,” Doohan said. “But unfortunately working from the start [of the season] with a car that wasn’t right, that had a fundamental issue. Everything we worked on, balance for a race car, for a quali car was just completely off. When we got the car in the window in Barcelona and found a big issue, we were almost starting from scratch again, unfortunately. It only took us really [until] Monaco and Barcelona to get a strong race car and since then I think we’ve been really strong in both quali and the race. Now we are in that sweet spot I feel.”

As Virtuosi’s competitiveness improved with Doohan, so did his consistency. Since the start of round five in Monaco, the Alpine junior has gone on to score points in eight out of the ten proceeding races. His performances and pace in round eight at Silverstone marked the end of his podium drought. Finally, he arrived in Hungary.

The fourth and most recent pole of his Formula 2 career may have been the most significant. With the Hungaroring playing host to a pivotal moment in the championship narrative, it was not the dominant Prema or ART car on pole but the Virtuosi of Doohan. Leading from the front on Sunday, he successfully held off the threats of Vesti and Martins behind. In doing so, Doohan achieved his first-ever grand chelem – pole, fastest lap and winning the race having led every single lap. A truly dominant set of results that only go to prove Formula 2’s resident Aussie is officially back in the reckoning.

“I honestly wasn’t really thinking about that,” Doohan said post-victory about his grand chelem. “I’m super happy with the race and actually to be the last car boxing, starting on the primary strategy, just shows that the communication we had and the management was awesome and also the car was hooked up. Eyes on Spa to see if we can take a further step forward.”

For Doohan’s title hopes, this rush of confidence has most likely come too late. The Virtuosi driver still lags 53 points behind current championship leader Frederik Vesti, with just four rounds remaining. Nevertheless, history suggests that the next circuit on the Formula 2 calendar will continue to favour Doohan. 

Spa-Francorchamps has been his happiest hunting ground over the last couple of years. Feature race victories in both Formula 2 and Formula 3, an F3 sprint win and a further F2 sprint podium may leave little doubt of his ability around the historic Belgian circuit. Doohan, however, is not taking anything for granted.  

“I’m confident that I can maintain this level of performance but winning [at Spa] last year means nothing. I love the place, we had a great car, but things evolve, times change and we need to push even harder to make sure that we can try and replicate something like that. I just want to keep this consistency up, keep this pace, what I believe that I’ve had all year. I’m very excited going into the remaining four rounds.”

Header photo credit: Alpine Cars