Jack Doohan will make his Formula 1 debut in 2025 with Alpine, and in an interesting twist, he will race with the number 7 – a number that holds significant meaning for him.

Initially, Doohan had requested the number 12, believing it was available. However, it was later revealed that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had already applied for that number. This left Doohan and his Alpine team with no choice but to select a new number for his debut season.

In the end, Doohan opted for the number 7. The Australian driver explained that he had always admired Kimi Raikkonen, who famously raced with the number 7 throughout much of his remarkable career.

The Finnish driver, who became a world champion in 2007, used the number from 2014 until his retirement in 2021, meaning it became available this year as per F1 rules each number is unavailable for two more years after driver’s retirement.

Interestingly, Doohan had actually raced with the number 7 during his time in the Euroformula Open Championship in 2019, when he competed for Double R Racing. With Formula 1's rule of permanent numbers, Doohan will now keep the number for his entire F1 career.

To locking in the number, Doohan said: “So that's it. Number seven will be my race number for 2025.

“Super psyched. I really wanted to go with a number that I raced with before. Something that had meaning for me. 

“I raced with number seven in 2019. And also one of my idols, a super special person and driver, Kimi Raikkonen: also drove with that number.

“I'm really looking forward to continuing it on and making it my own. And yeah, getting some luck from number seven.”