Williams – with former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz already signed to partner incumbent Alexander Albon – had no room for Colapinto, but struck a loan arrangement with Alpine to take the promising 21-year-old on what was termed “a multi-year deal”.

It didn’t take long for the jungle drums to become deafening.

Colapinto’s popularity in a country starved of F1 drivers – and without a grand prix since 1998 – led to significant commercial interest. Paddock insiders last year suggested Colapinto’s business backers were tipping in $US500,000 ($791,000) per race for his brief stint at Williams. Well-connected Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport reported Williams received €20 million ($34.4 million) from Alpine for that multi-year deal. Alpine’s suite of Argentine sponsors swelled.

While F1 teams won’t hire drivers purely for the associated financial benefits they bring – the stopwatch is still the primary determining factor – it certainly can’t hurt.

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Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso is nobody’s definition of a “pay driver”, but Spanish companies have had their logos on the cars of whoever he’s driven for since the 43-year-old first became world champion in 2005.

Mexican sponsor stickers, visibly present on the side of Red Bull’s cars from when Sergio Perez was signed to partner Max Verstappen in 2021, have disappeared after the 35-year-old was dumped for New Zealander Liam Lawson. Perez’s drop-off in results last year saw Red Bull fall to third in the constructors’ championship despite Verstappen winning his fourth consecutive drivers’ title.

Following Colapinto’s arrival at Alpine, the team’s management had several chances to make Doohan’s future crystal-clear, but danced around the subject.

Alpine’s executive adviser, veteran former F1 team boss Flavio Briatore, only fanned the flames when asked for certainty about the team’s line-up.

“You can’t be emotional in F1,” Briatore told French newspaper Le Parisien.

“We start the year with Pierre [Gasly] and Jack, I guarantee it. After that, we’ll see during the season. I have to help the team reach a situation where it can achieve results.

“The driver is the one who has to finish the work of the almost 1000 people behind him. Everyone works for just two people. If one of the drivers is not moving forward, is not bringing results, then I replace him.”

Team principal Oliver Oakes – Alpine’s fourth since 2021 – was asked a similar question after pre-season testing wrapped up in Bahrain, where Doohan lapped within a respectable three-tenths of a second of the vastly experienced Gasly to sit just outside the top 10 on the timesheets.

“I think he should be given a bit of space just to get on with it for a few rounds,” Oakes said.

“And then at the end of the day, like any driver, you’ve got to deliver. Whether it’s nice or kind to Jack … he’s driving a Formula One car. That’s every boy’s dream, but it’s also his job. For me, that’s pretty simple.”

Between Briatore’s threat and Oakes’ non-answer answer came F1’s launch event at London’s O2 Arena to mark the start of the championship’s 75th year. Doohan – shielded from almost all pre-Australian Grand Prix media commitments in the lead-up to Albert Park – was asked if he felt under pressure because of Colapinto’s arrival.

“No … I’ve been told he’s reserve driver,” he said.

“You’re one of 20 Formula One drivers in the world. I know that when I was a go-karter, in Formula 3, Formula 2, I would do anything to be in F1. You’re always going to have pressure on the shoulders because you’re in such a cut-throat sport. Whatever pressure there may be, I look forward to enjoying that, embracing that.”

A follow-up asking if he felt undermined by Colapinto’s presence as a reserve driver with a long-term deal was given short-shrift – “is that a question? – before a third, similar, question was immediately shut down by Alpine’s press officer.

There’ll be multiple more enquiries on a singular topic in the run-up to what should be a landmark moment for Doohan this weekend, one where the narrative could – should – be of a second-generation motorsport prodigy steadily making his own way to the top of his chosen field.

After a scoreless first F3 season in 2020, Doohan finished championship runner-up in his sophomore season before graduating to F2. A sixth-place F2 finish in 2022 preceded a three-win, five-podium 2023 campaign, good for third overall in the category that’s the final stepping stone to F1.

Doohan projects as a feisty and hard-working driver who will lift your floor, but perhaps not raise your ceiling. It’s a description that’s applicable to many of his peers, several of whom made it to F1 with less success.

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That rate of results won’t cut it this time, though; certainly not for a team that allowed former reserve driver Oscar Piastri to escape through a contractual loophole to McLaren in 2022, has gone through team principals like winning teams go through gearboxes, and has elected to abandon its own engine program at the end of this season to save costs.

With Alpine likely to fight with – ironically – Williams to be the fastest team behind F1’s “big four” of McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, it’s up to Doohan to deliver, fast.

Even if he does, the dreaded pink slip from an employer which has had its head turned might still be as unavoidable as it is unfair, even by F1 standards.