Alpine says it is “preparing” Jack Doohan for the possibility of an F1 debut in 2025 with the French manufacturer.
Doohan, the son of multiple MotoGP world championship winner Mick, is among the favourites for the seat set to be vacated by Esteban Ocon.
Just days before the Canadian Grand Prix, it was announced Ocon and Alpine would split.
Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand
Doohan has been present at F1 races this year as Alpine’s reserve driver – a role that would give him a race start if either Ocon or Pierre Gasly couldn’t compete.
If not Doohan, then former Haas driver Mick Schumacher is another candidate.
ULTIMATE GUIDE: Against the odds, F1 champ seeks ultimate prize
READ MORE: Bizarre twist as Cody Simpson eyes ‘last throw of the dice’
READ MORE: ‘Shell-shocked’ Sharks humbled as Hynes dealt blow
READ MORE: Why Blues would be ‘stupid’ to overlook Latrell
He is also part of Alpine’s roster of drivers, competes for them in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut this weekend.
Speaking with Sky Sports F1 at the Canadian Grand Prix, Alpine team principal Bruno Famin gave the biggest hint yet that Doohan will be Ocon’s successor.
“We are preparing him,” said Famin.
“He has been testing for a long time. He has quite a heavy testing program, and we’re happy with that. Let’s see how he develops.
“He is one possibility, among others, but he is a possibility for sure.”
Doohan finished third in his second season of the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2023 and won the season-ending feature race at Abu Dhabi.
The 21-year-old is not racing this year but has been completing testing laps with the team.
“It’s difficult to say anything with Formula 1 is for certain,” Doohan told Sky Sports F1.
“My dream is to be on the grid. My dream is to be in Formula 1.
“I’m here obviously with the team’s reserve driver preparing myself to be in the car. That is where I want to be.
“Every time I get to do that – whether it’s the sim, on track, experiencing myself in marketing, with comms – I’m trying to position myself to get that opportunity.
“Nothing is for certain. There are no givens.”
Is Doohan ready? He seems to think so with countless kilometres in contemporary F1 cars putting him in good stead.
“I think that previous mileage has been very, very high in the ’21 car, and two days in the ’22 car,” Doohan explained.
“I felt very comfortable coming into (practice at Canada). Previously coming to FP (free practice) you have nerves, you feel you’re jumping up from Formula 2, so there’s a lot of emotion, whereas coming into (the Canadian Grand Prix) I felt very complete, there was no fear, there was nothing about feeling out of my comfort zone.
“I really felt that even with the test times we were going to run that I could actually hop in and have a crack and really do something good. But, in the end, we didn’t obviously get to do that and it’s a little bit unfortunate, but that is how it is.
“I’ve been able to show what I can do in those tests which are much longer, more time than an hour for the weather window.”
Doohan took part in a disjointed practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix where rain limited running to just three laps and no competitive lap times for the Queenslander.