Doohan eyes clean weekend in Bahrain after Suzuka setback

Relishing in the back-to-back nature of the triple header, Jack Doohan is looking forward to leaving his misstep at the Japanese Grand Prix in the past as he declares his biggest goal in Bahrain is to have “a smooth run from start to finish”.

Completely derailed by his high-speed shunt during FP2 at the Japanese Grand Prix, last weekend was an outing that also came close to derailing the Australian’s F1 career had Flavio Briatore been present at Suzuka.

Less than one week on, however, the Australian has mentally moved on and is physically on the mend after pulling up sore on Sunday.

His second major accident in just three races left the Australian visibly in pain after the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix, with Doohan’s onboards in parc fermé highlighting the fact that he required assistance from Alpine crew members, as well as a helping hand from Esteban Ocon, to exit the car.

“Yeah, I think I was sore a little bit on Friday, certainly Saturday a bit worse, and Sunday a little bit worse again,” Doohan explained.

“So I’d say there was pain from the start of the race, not necessarily towards the end. 

“It helps with the adrenaline a little bit, for sure. 

“And yeah, I think it’s natural with the shunt and just the positioning that I suffered a little bit of soreness. 

“But a couple of days off—Monday, Tuesday and also yesterday—have been very much needed and very good for the body.”

But despite his most recent setback, Doohan insists there’s been “at least some silver lining in each weekend”.

“I think as long as you learn from the setbacks or things you can improve on, and digest them—and then you can make sure you know where those positives came from and how to replicate them,” he said.

“I think the biggest goal this weekend is just to put the weekend together, have a smooth run from start to finish, and just keep building and inching closer and closer so that we can start to get that complete package.”

This weekend, Doohan arrived at the Bahrain International Circuit with a sense of familiarity and comfort, having completed pre-season testing in Sahkir a short while ago, however, it’s not without challenge.

The conditions in Bahrain have shifted since F1’s visit in February, with temperatures expected to climb as high as 37°C across the weekend, making practice all the more important for set-up configurations. 

“I look forward to just having that clean weekend, putting it all together and yeah, this weekend we have a perfect opportunity to have a full race weekend again,” the #7 said.

“I look forward to coming back to Bahrain—as the others have touched on—somewhere we were testing, albeit I think it’s 25°C hotter here today, so it’s going to be much, much different. 

“Car balance, feeling, grip—going to feel terrible. 

“A lot of things that are going to be coming after FP, but I look forward to cracking on. 

“We’re now at, I think, round four, so we’re starting to get into it and this back-to-back-to-back triple header is going to be nice just to keep the flow.”

The first practice session of the weekend will take place tonight at 21:30 AEST.

Image: Formula 1

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