Doohan did make it to the start of the season, but losing the car on lap one in what he described as a “brutal” accident, can’t have helped. He now goes into a sprint event in China this weekend, with even less practice time than he had in Australia.

After the race team boss Oliver Oakes admitted the team might have put undue pressure on Doohan by signing an extra reserve driver – but still asserted results are the bottom line.

“I feel for him, because at the end of the day, probably all that noise was brought on from what we did,” the Alpine principal said.

“By the same token, if you’re good and you can handle it, you deserve to be in F1. You are one of 20 drivers here, and you have to perform no matter what’s thrown at you.”

The fact that Alpine – particularly Oakes – kept trying to frame things up to this point as the media speculating on a nothing-situation rather than a PR storm brought upon itself suggested nervousness.

Both he, Briatore and Doohan himself were questioned by Motor Sport and other media on the situation at the team’s livery launch, prior to the first race, earlier this year. Colapinto vs Doohan was the hot topic.

“I’m not pushing for Colapinto,” protested Briatore. “Now we have three reserve drivers [who are] — especially Colapinto — very, very quick.

“Jack, for the moment, has done very good in the test, and Gasly has done a super job last year.

“Let’s start the season, and after we see what kind of possibility. If it’s not this year, it’s next year but sure, we’re looking for – everybody is looking for – ‘the talent’, because with the talent it’s easy to win the championship.

“You had the talent with Schumacher. We won the championship. We had the talent in Fernando. We won the championship. These guys make the difference. Now, within three-tenths you have five cars.

“I’ve made changes before, because of people not performing. We have the responsibility of 1000 staff, 1000 people working in the factory, and we need to respect these people working very hard. I expect the best from everybody, everybody working together to winning a race.”

As well as a driver squeezing the most – and even more – from a car, Briatore is clearly referring to that star factor which can haul a team along and make it greater than the sum of its parts. This was something which Schumacher and Alonso certainly had.

While Colapinto was doing a decent job rather than a spectacular one in F2, his charisma and engaging personality once in grand prix racing made him an attractive prospect for teams — not to mention his South American sponsorship and the fans that come with him. That’s a lot of people to sell Alpine baseball hats to.

At the launch event the Argentinian notably thanked the significant number of journalists who had made the trip all the way from their homeland to see a car that in theory he might not even be driving this year.

“People used to say Helmut [Marko] was far too tough,” Oakes reasons, a nod to the notorious junior driver guru’s cutthroat attitude to young talent.

“But actually, when you look at the approach he had, it created world champions in Red Bull. And actually that’s what the team needed to do.

“In our case, it’s always going to be based on merit. Drivers have to perform.

“I think it’s a really nice position to be in to have not just Franco, but also Paul Aron, and Ryo there to give us options, not just this year but in the future, to make it competitive – whether that’s in the simulator or testing with our cars.

“We do have a lot of work for them to get through. Actually having more than one does make them be on their toes and raise their game. Even in F1, it can be quite easy to rest on your laurels if you haven’t got that competitiveness.”

But what does Doohan himself make of all the noise around him? The Australian notably got a little sharp with one journalist who followed the line of questioning at the F1 75 press conference, but appeared somewhat more mellow when we spoke to him later that day.

When Motor Sport asked if having five drivers in the Alpine charged the atmosphere in the team in the way Oakes said, a defiant Doohan said it wasn’t the case.

“Not for me,” he said. “Maybe I can’t answer that question as well as others can, because maybe it might be a little bit more difficult for comms trying to manage five race drivers, rather than just two or three, but for me it’s the same thing.

“I want to race my car, go fast and perform. I don’t need anyone behind me to let me know to do that.”

Doohan did show favourable lap times in practice and qualified a respectable 14th before it all went wrong in Australia, but that won’t be enough. It’s only points that mean prizes in F1.

Briatore immediately got back to his deal-making-best upon his 2024 return by controversially cutting off the Alpine team’s relationship with Renault’s Viry engine plant — which has been on the F1 grid in one form or another for 50 years — in favour of Mercedes, and moved on Esteban Ocon, the last driver to win a race for the team.

He’s not afraid to make the big decisions: “In the end my responsibility is always to provide to the team [with] the best drivers possible. If you were doing my job, you’d do the same – you try to have the best one.”

Doohan will be desperate to prove over the next few races that’s him.