The beginning of the Doohan rumours
It’s no secret that the rumours and drama at Alpine F1 team has been heating up during the off season. Rumours have spiralled for months, surrounding Jack Doohan and his future at Alpine, before it has even really started.
Doohan was signed mid last year to debut in Formula 1 at Alpine for the 2025 season, alongside Pierre Gasly. By the end of the season, rookie Franco Colapinto had made his own F1 debut for Williams, and rumours began.
News outlets began to report on the idea that Colapinto would be taking Doohan’s seat not long into 2025, with the Australian getting a few races to prove himself.
This January, Alpine announced Colapinto as their reserve driver, furthering these rumours. The Argentinian himself heightened these rumours when he added “Formula 1 driver for @AlpineF1Team” into his social media bios. This has since been removed.
Supporting his homeland talent
Now where does Christian Mansell come into this you ask? Well, after Colapinto was announced as Alpine’s reserve driver, Australian F2 driver Christian Mansell, reposted a tweet from Tommo McCluskey – Sky F1 Contributor. McCluskey had quoted Autosport’s Colapinto announcement graphic, adding a simple “Give Doohan a chance for f*** sake.”
After retweeting this, Mansell began to receive a lot of backlash and abuse from Colapinto fans. This abuse even saw Mansell being called slurs.
Mansell bit back stating, “Since when did it become a minefield to support a driver? As a community, we need to do better.”
The Australian continued to condemn the use of slurs, “It’s a sign of low intelligence. You should be able to support whoever you please in a safe and harmless manner, and if you can’t, just don’t say it publicly.”
The Colapinto fans have since been accused of fostering a toxic environment on social media, and large numbers of fans have shown that this behaviour is frowned upon.
