Mick Schumacher’s Alpine shoot-out branded ‘not fair’ after Jack Doohan earns 2025 F1 seat

Up against Jack Doohan for the second F1 2025 Alpine seat, Ralf Schumacher says Mick Schumacher’s shoot-out test was “not fair” and he doubts the team took it “seriously”.

Schumacher’s hopes of returning to the Formula 1 grid two years after his Haas axing were dealt a huge blow last week when Alpine announced their reserve driver Doohan had won the seat.

A ‘shame’ for Mick Schumacher, says uncle Ralf

Schumacher and Doohan had gone head-to-head in a one-day test at the Paul Ricard circuit in July where they were behind the wheel of a 2022 Alpine F1 car.

But while Schumacher’s Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said he knows “from Alpine it was a super test” and that the German “really delivered”, it was Doohan who got the nod.

Ralf Schumacher, Mick’s uncle, has questioned whether Alpine even took the shoot-out “seriously” as he feels it was “not fair” to his 25-year-old nephew.

“He [Mick] drove in the afternoon and Jack Doohan in the morning,” the former F1 driver told Sky Deutschland .

“I’ve been there myself. If you drove at 09:00, you were two and a half seconds faster because it was 38 degrees in the afternoon and there was wind.

“If you approach a test like that, you have to doubt that they took it seriously. I think it’s a shame because it’s just not fair and because nobody else gets the chance.”

The latest on the F1 2025 driver line-up

👉 F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2025 grid?

👉 Who is Alpine F1 2025 star Jack Doohan? World Champion father, Michael Schumacher links and more

Mick Schumacher learned of Alpine decision via Instagram

That Mick Schumacher learned of Alpine’s decision via Instagram only added to his uncle’s ire.

The team published a post last week that simply read: “Dream Doo come true. Jack Doohan will complete our line-up for 2025.”

“That’s absolutely not the way!” Ralf Schumacher said.

“You can just say that the team has completely lost its way at the moment anyway.

“People are being thrown out, thrown back in and so on. Flavio [Briatore, Alpine Executive Advisor] is kind of floating above it.”

Doohan will replace Esteban Ocon as Pierre Gasly’s new team-mate while Schumacher’s options have been reduced to one, Sauber, and that’s a long shot as they already have one German driver on the payroll in Nico Hulkenberg.

Schumacher is not ready to throw in the towel.

Revealing he is currently talking with other teams, he added: “But nothing more than that. We have to wait now, everyone is taking their time to analyse the situation well and then make the best choice as far as the drivers are concerned.

“They know what I can do and what they will get. Let’s see.”

Adding to Schumacher’s misery, the German also missed out on a Williams seat for the final nine races of the season with Williams opting instead to promote Franco Colapinto when they axed Logan Sargeant.

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