Jack Doohan has insisted that he is still focused on his goal of finding a race seat in Formula 1 again, after being handed a career lifeline through a new role at Haas.
The Australian suffered a miserable winter, with a formal axing from Alpine, having spent the majority of 2025 on the sidelines after being replaced by Franco Colapinto after the Miami Grand Prix.
Doohan looked set to upsticks to Asia with a test in for the Japanese Super Formula series, but was dealt a blow by missing out on a race drive at the 11th hour.
With no options seemingly open to him, the son of motorcycle racing legend Mick was handed a glimmer of hope by the American squad.
Doohan arrived in Bahrain for the first week of pre-season testing with a disposition as sunny as the weather, and amid a “fresh start” with Haas, there is a sense of renewed buoyancy about his career prospects.
Talking to media including Motorsport Week, Doohan indicated that he is not content with playing as just a reserve driver.
“My goal is to be in Formula 1, to race in Formula 1,” he said. “And I’ve been given that platform to have a go at with Haas. So I look forward to trying to do that.”
Whilst evidently eager to make a swift return to F1, Doohan is fully aware that there is a long way to go before he is back in the position of being in a full race seat again.
“From my position, it’s my second day with the team, so I’m not going up and grabbing the guys by the collar and saying, ‘hey, put me in the car’,” he said.
“This probably sounds strange, but to complete clarity, it’s the most important time for the team and for everyone to prioritise solely on the drivers, on the cars, new regulation, not focussing on anything else externally, and that being any other driver, even though that might be in contrast to what you might think.
“It’s important that the team gets in the most strong and effective, reliable place possible with this new regulation and focus solely on that to ensure that they can be as strong as possible come 2027.”
Sportscars an option for Jack Doohan amid balancing new Haas role
Doohan will not just sit on his new role with the Banbury-based team, and confirmed that he will be racing in some form or other this year, and revealed that sportscars is a viable option, stating that he had recently been testing with Algarve Pro Racing, the Portuguese outfit that competes in both the European Le Mans Series and IMSA/
“I was testing the last two days in an LMP2 car on Monday and Tuesday,” he revealed. “With the way things panned out and only being able to really join quite late in the year of January, it hasn’t obviously revealed too many options for racing plans, but potentially in an ELMS, in an LMP2 car to do Le Mans.
“Whatever is going to fit best while also spending as much time as I can be here.”
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