Jack Duane's position in Alpine F1 has become stronger

      There are now two representatives of Australia in Formula 1, and if one of them won yesterday's Bahrain Grand Prix, then the second, Jack Duane, took only 14th place. At the same time, the Alpine racer was ninth on the second leg of the race, but then he was unlucky when a safety car pulled onto the track. Further events developed in such a way that he dropped out of the top ten.

      Nevertheless, according to The Race publication, Duane's position in the Renault factory team has become stronger, and no personnel changes are expected in the coming months. There was a lot of talk that he could be replaced by Franco Colapinto, the reserve rider of Alpine, and Flavio Briatore openly hinted at this.

      Technically, Briatore serves as an adviser, but Luca Demeo, the head of the Renault Group, gave him very broad powers, and it was Flavio who relied on the Argentine. Moreover, Alpine has already acquired Argentine sponsors. But it seems that at this stage of the season, the team strongly supports Duane, despite all his mistakes, including those that led to serious accidents.

      In Enstone, they see that Jack has speed, and sometimes he is almost as good as the much more experienced Pierre Gasly. At the same time, the team appreciates that Duane is able to work effectively with engineers and draw conclusions from his mistakes. In addition, he gets along well with his partner and demonstrates psychological resilience.

      According to The Race, Duane should not be replaced either in Miami or in the next few races, as it was decided to give him time at least until the middle of the season. And if his business goes well, Jack will keep his place until the end of the championship.

      "He did a good job this weekend, and in general, too," said Oliver Oakes, team principal. – I understand that the accident in training in Japan affected him, but I think that in Bahrain, especially during qualifying, he acted quite effectively. After the second attempt in the second session, Jack was a little upset, because he was only a few tenths short of reaching the final.

      Then, during the race, in the first two segments of the race, he generally coped with his task perfectly. But in the end, the difficulties began. When the safety car gathered the entire peloton, it was already more difficult to compete with the cars of other teams. Nevertheless, Jack performed well this weekend."

      Oakes did not mention that Duane received a 5-second penalty for driving off the track and remains one of the four drivers in the championship with no points yet.