Former Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan has delved into his “much stronger” state of mind, one year on from his mid-season demotion from the Alpine F1 outfit.
Doohan was speaking on the eve of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which he took part in with Nielsen Racing in the LMP2 category. The #24 ORECA he shared with Ed Pearson and David Heinemeier Hansson finished just 18th in class amid a troublesome race, after being qualified in third by Doohan himself.
While the interview with Motorsport and French publication AutoHebdo centred around his endurance programme, F1 did come up in the conversation. The Australian subtly alluded to his harrowing experience at Alpine, and how he has recovered from it from a psychological point of view.
“I’ve been in some situations over the last 12, 14 months where I’m in a place where there’s got to be a very, very large perspective of things to really overcome, let’s say surpass, some of the environmental places that I’ve had to be in over the period,” he said. “So now, I’m very comfortable and not really worried at all about external opinions or expectations, and it’s providing to be a huge gain on my side.”
Asked by Motorsport if his bruising F1 experience has indeed made him stronger, Doohan replied: “Yeah, much, much, much, much stronger. It has pros and cons, obviously, of everything. There’s also some cons to that, outside of racing, like in personal life, for sure.
“But from a racing perspective, in a mental way, it’s been a huge, huge gain, which I’m grateful for. I just need to try to manage that off the track and make sure that I’m not being some flat, monotone person completely, and just being myself.”
#24 Nielsen Racing ORECA 07 Gibson: David Heinemeier Hansson, Edward Pearson, Jack Doohan
Photo by: Alessio Morgese / NurPhoto via Getty Images
As far as one could tell from our 12-minute interaction, Doohan is doing a good job at that.
Will we ever see the 23-year-old back in F1, after his point-less Alpine stint ended after just seven grands prix? He still has a foot in the paddock as a Haas reserve driver and, most importantly, he’s adamant he’s now in a stronger mental position to deal with the inherent pressure within the world championship.
“I really enjoy the difficult environments, and I feel like now I would thrive more,” Doohan reckoned. “The more variability there is to have, let’s say, gains on your opponents or on other people, by having more factors that relate directly to your performance, I see it as an opportunity, a window to improve and be in front. And especially with where I’m at now, I think I would definitely be happy to be in an environment with much more going on, so that I could use it to my advantage.”
But if he were to return to F1, Le Mans rookie Doohan would already miss the French classic.
“If I do go back into Formula 1, it’s going to be very tricky from now on to have to miss this race,” he said. “It’s one now that, I haven’t even done it yet, but just the build-up is something that I would want to do every year for as long as I can now, being so enjoyable.
“It’s been really, really cool, and I’ll cherish the moments that I have here because it’s an amazing experience to be facing right now.”
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