Despite retiring from the Australian Grand Prix, Alpine driver Jack Doohan believes there were plenty of positives to take away from Melbourne. (Reuters: Jakub Porzycki)
In short:
Australian Jack Doohan's first home grand prix lasted less than one lap, crashing his Alpine and retiring from the race.
The Queensland-born F1 driver says he is focused on the positives of the weekend and will hope to build on that in the next round.
What's next?
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend, round two of the Formula 1 season, will be held from March 21-23.
Jack Doohan's first home grand prix ended unceremoniously with a lap one crash, but the Queenslander says he needs to move on quickly ahead of next Sunday's race.
Doohan, son of five-time motorcycle world champion Mick, was one of several drivers caught out by the rain in the Australian Grand Prix.
Going down one of the Albert Park straights on the first lap, Doohan's Alpine turned sharply to the left and went into the wall.
F1 Australian Grand Prix live
Photo shows Oscar Piastri, in his racing suit and cap, looking towards the sky
The tricky conditions in Formula 1's season opener caught even the most experienced driver, Fernando Alonso, off guard.
Putting a wheel in the wrong spot could send your car into the barrier, which appeared to be Doohan's only mistake before his afternoon came to an abrupt end.
But Doohan has no time to dwell as the F1 circus moves to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend.
"It was an unfortunate end to an overall positive weekend," Doohan said after the race, won by McLaren's Lando Norris.
"It was the result of a combination of factors which we will go over together as a team to learn from and ensure it does not happen again.
"It is a tough way to learn but I have digested what happened and put it behind me to focus on what is ahead."
Jack Doohan's first Australian Grand Prix ended on the first lap when he crashed his Alpine. (Getty Images: Formula1/James Sutton)
While the end result was not what Doohan — or the tens of thousands of Aussies who packed into Albert Park — wanted, the Alpine driver said there was plenty to feel good about.
The Alpine looked competitive against midfield rivals during the practice sessions, and that is what Doohan said he would choose to focus on.
"The positive learnings from the weekend outweigh the outcome from [Sunday]," he said.
"We were strong [in qualifying] but caught out with the yellow flag.
"All the weekend, the pace has been there so as a team we can take confidence going into every race weekend.
"We have back-to-back races with Shanghai coming up next week, so we will regroup as a team and aim to come back even stronger there."
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend will be held from March 21-23.
It will also host the first round of the F1 Academy season, where Australians Aiva Anagnostiadis and Joanne Ciconte will be on the grid.
ABC Sport Daily podcast
The ABC of SPORT
Sports content to make you think… or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday.Your information is being handled in accordance with the ABC Privacy Collection Statement.