It may seem too late, but from an early season abyss, back-to-back Formula 2 feature race victories for Alpine junior Jack Doohan have given the Australian hope at a title charge. Following his spectacular win at Spa-Francorchamps last month, Doohan spoke confidently about remaining within the championship hunt.

By Tyler Foster

The extent to which the Virtuosi driver has closed the gap on those ahead is impressive. After round seven at the Red Bull Ring, Doohan had a mediocre 54 points in comparison to Frederik Vesti’s 125 points. In the ensuing three rounds, the Australian has outscored the Dane by 76 points to 31 points.

With just three rounds left in the current Formula 2 campaign, those being Zandvoort, Monza and Abu Dhabi, Doohan now sits 38 points off of championship leader Théo Pourchaire. This resurgence in form has led the Alpine junior to believe that anything is possible in regards to the championship race.

“I think [it is still possible] for sure. I’m not in a pressure situation either. I’ve had a lot of things unfortunately out of my control this year, but luckily with determination and resilience, we were able to fight our way back… We’ll keep pushing. I’m going to continue to fight.”

Doohan’s championship comeback

The Invicta Virtuosi Racing driver had previously spoken at length about his struggles earlier in the campaign, telling Feeder Series that a “fundamental issue” with their car caused a pace deficit in the opening four rounds. After identifying this during the May mid-season test in Barcelona, changes were made, leading to instant improvements.

Starting from round five in Monaco, the British team began to regain the pace that made Doohan a title favourite entering this campaign. This rise almost culminated in a double-podium three rounds later at Silverstone.

It wasn’t until round nine at Hungary where Doohan was finally able to grab his first pole position of the year. However, this paved the way for a return to form, as the 20-year-old was able to convert his pole in a dominant lights-to-flag victory. The next circuit on the calendar was Spa-Francorchamps, where Doohan had won three times in the previous two years, creating expectation for a repeat performance.

“I had a great weekend at the Hungaroring. I started the weekend off strong [at Spa] as well, felt super confident with the car.”

“I won back-to-back races in Formula 3 [at Spa], [including] the feature race. Then on the podium last year in the sprint, winning the [Formula 2] feature and then [on Saturday’s Sprint Race] I wasn’t quite close enough.”

Returning to the top step at Spa

Unfortunately, a rain-affected qualifying looked to set Doohan’s Spa weekend back. Curtailed running on Friday due to the poor weather meant the true pace throughout the field was somewhat masked. There was still hope for the Virtuosi driver, however, especially after he was able to rise from eleventh to fifth in Saturday’s sprint race. 

“Once I got over Friday afternoon, I had my eyes forward and honestly thought that I could win [Sunday’s feature race]. That was my ambition. The team thought that if we had a good race [on Sunday] that I could get fifth or maybe even a little bit better.”

Starting from outside the top ten, Doohan needed more than just good pace to be able to achieve consecutive feature race wins for the first time since his victories in Formula 3. 

“I was in bed [the night before] manifesting a win. In the end, I was lucky with the safety car but super happy that we were able to get that done,” he said.

We had really strong pace so I’m really glad we got to show that

Jack Doohan

“Super lucky [with the safety car], but it owed me, whatever that is up there, it owed me some luck. I took it with open arms. Regardless, we had really strong pace so I’m really glad we got to show that.

“To get the feature [win] again [this year], you could say I like this place a little bit.”

Next up on the Formula 2 calendar is Zandvoort, where Doohan qualified an impressive P2 last year. However, the Australian will be hoping for better fortunes in the races there after failing to score a point throughout the weekend.

Header photo credit: Alpine Cars