Alpine will consider promoting one of their young prospects to a Formula 1 race seat next season if their deal to sign Pierre Gasly falls through.
While Esteban Ocon is tied down to a long-term contract, they need to find someone to partner him going forward. Fernando Alonso will leave for a longer deal at Aston Martin, while their original backup Oscar Piastri decided instead to sign for rivals McLaren.
There have been plenty of candidates but they seem to have settled upon Gasly as first choice. The Frenchman has one year left on his Red Bull contract, but had the door closed on a return to the top team in that time and has been open to new challenges ever since.
He has proven his talent since returning to the sister team AlphaTauri, while having two French drivers is also an attractive prospect for the Renault-backed team. But the deal hinges on whether or not Red Bull get the go-ahead to sign their preferred replacement.
Colton Herta is an American IndyCar star who would bring exciting sponsorship opportunities as well as being a good racer. But he does not currently qualify for an F1 superlicence, and so the FIA would need to bend the rules to allow him to switch to the sport in 2023.
Alpine are not willing to take any chances as they build for the future. Given their Gasly move is contingent on Herta getting the green light to replace him, chief executive Laurent Rossi has confirmed they would consider promoting F2 racer Jack Doohan if the deal breaks down.
"There are plenty of good ones. Helmut [Marko] mentioned Pierre – why wouldn't you? He's a very good driver, he would be a good candidate for us," he told the official F1 website. "You mentioned Jack, he's a consideration. Despite what we said about the academy, we believe in him, he's shown a lot potential, especially lately.
"Talk about being present at the right moment – he's a great person, he is fast, his father is also a champion I admire and a person I admire. They are great guys. He's in our plans. One way or another we will try and put him in an F1 car at some point. But then again, once bitten, twice shy."
Revealing a soft deadline of the end of September for a decision, he added: "We don't want to rush into the decision. It's a process [team principal Otmar Szafnauer] is leading, as he knows what is best for the team. We take input from our engineers. The driver is important, but the car is the most important by far."
