Jack Doohan finished P14, unfortunately for him losing out because of the the Safety Car at the F1 Bahrain GP. After looking on track for his maiden points haul, the Alpine driver dropped down the order following a challenging final stint on the hard tyres.
He had been running in 9th not long before the Safety Car appeared. Unfortunately for him, he had switched to the hards just four laps before it. Tsunoda, Bearman, Antonelli and Albon all boxed under the Safety Car, putting on softs and mediums respectively.
Qualifying set-up and setbacks
Initially showing strong pace throughout qualifying, Doohan managed to secure P11 on the starting grid, placing him in a solid, potential point-scoring position heading into Sunday’s race. This marked significant progress for Alpine.
However, speaking post-race in the print media zone, Doohan revealed adjustments with the qualifying set-up may have dampened his race pace, especially on older tyres at the end of a stint.
“I like the car a lot more on the nose, for sure. I think that’s really hurt me today, especially at the end of the stint.”
Expanding on his race pace, he admitted the need to strike a balance in optimising the car set-up between Saturday and Sunday.
“Yeah, I think we had a really good, strong quali car. But I think maybe I just need to have a think into how I’m setting up my quali car to ensure that I also have a nice and pleasant on the tyres race car.“
A Safety Car gamble topples third stint
After contact between Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda leaving debris on track, a Safety Car was deployed on lap 32. This sparked a plethora of drivers to dive into the pits, all favouring a quick change of tire for the final stint. Sitting at P9, Alpine took the gamble for Doohan to stay out, favouring track position after already pitting on lap 28 for hards.
Unfortunately, after a solid race restart, Doohan struggled with managing his hard tyres, which proved to be the compound to avoid for the majority of the pack. Eventually being caught by a number of cars behind him on fresh softs, Doohan fell to P13 after Tsunoda, Bearman, Antonelli, and Albon all made their way past by lap 47.
Conceding to bad luck, the driver of car number 7 admitted how he lost out via the Safety Car, which ultimately cost him a top ten finish.
“I think it was Yuki [Tsunoda] who was 0.8 coming onto one straight and I thought I should be fine with a 0.8 gap. The next minute I looked halfway down the straight and he’s on my rear.
“I think we boxed at the right time for the hard. Bit of bad luck on the Safety Car, the six cars behind us on new softs. I pushed quite a lot to try and keep them behind. Once he went through, then struggling quite a lot with the rear.
“You kind of then just stumble, you’re in dirty air, the car’s behind you on that fresh soft there with the momentum. You’re a bit of a sitting duck.“
Late time penalty
To add insult to injury Doohan received a five-second time penalty at the end of the race for breaching track limits.
Marking the end to a disappointing Bahrain GP, he acknowledged the blow of his fourth track limits violation.
“Then we picked up a time penalty at the end, which knocked us back a couple of places. Very unfortunate end to the stint.”
Looking forward to Saudi Arabia
Although finishing P15 initially after his time penalty, Jack Doohan was able to take a small win, moving up to P14 after Hülkenberg’s post-race disqualification following a plank infringement.
With the Saudi Arabian GP this weekend, the Australian driver remarked on the teams progress in Bahrain, hoping for another showing of strong pace ahead of similar conditions in Jeddah.
“We’re going into another hot race next weekend. We just look to try to build from this and continue where we’ve left off. Maybe not in my ultimate finishing position today, but in our pace.”
