There has been a fresh twist in the Jack Doohan F1 sacking saga with the sport’s top photographer Kym Illman revealing how much strain the young Aussie driver was under before his final race in Miami.

Illman said Doohan had been dealing with horrible online threats all year — largely from Argentine F1 fans who wanted to see their countryman Franco Colapinto promoted — but also revealed that more sinister attacks were at play.

The Doohans, Mick and Jack, and Jack’s low-profile Australian girlfriend Ebony Zippora Gold were all involved and all had “real concerns” as the threats became more serious.

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In fact, as the attackers homed in, the 22-year-old driver had become so concerned he hired around-the-clock security during the Miami Grand Prix which was ultimately his last for the Renault-owned Alpine team.

“He was receiving all sorts of threats online so much so that he had around-the-clock security in Miami and was planning on keeping that security for the Brazilian Grand Prix,” Illman said on Instagram.

“Out of all the drivers, it’s really only Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri that have full-time security.

“It was plain to see by those close to the Aussie that those threats weighed heavily on him.

“People had discovered his personal email address and were sending email threats which resulted in Jack, his girlfriend and even his father holding real concerns for their safety in Miami and on top of that, Jack’s sleep was affected.

“I’m certain Franco wouldn’t be endorsing any of that behaviour from what is a minority of his fanbase.”

Illman said Jack had the “Franco threat” hanging over his head for every moment of his short time with Alpine.

“He was constantly quizzed about his future by the media and don’t doubt that that gets to a driver,” he said.

He also noted that Jack eventually disabled comments on his Insta page, and pointed out that most of those comments were coming from trolls who had Argentina and Spanish flags in their bio.

“That’s normally a pretty good sign something is up,” he said.

It was announced on Wednesday that Doohan would be replaced in the seat by Colapinto, with the Argentine joining Pierre Gasly in pink for next week’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

But, despite all of that drama, Doohan remained classy.

“I am very proud to have achieved my lifelong ambition to be a professional Formula One driver and I will forever be grateful to the team for helping me achieve this dream,” he said after he was dumped.

“Obviously, this latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing ... We have long-term goals as a team to achieve and I will continue to give my maximum efforts in any way I can to help achieve those.

“For now, I will keep my head down, keep working hard, watch with interest the next five races and keep chasing my own personal goals.”

Earlier, championship leader Oscar Piastri expressed his sympathy for his fellow Australian.

“Coming to F1, especially as a rookie under pressure, I do feel sorry for him in some ways,” McLaren driver Piastri told ABC TV from England.

“It’s not been the easiest start to the year for him and I know how hard it is to get to F1 in the first place.

“So I think whatever happens, he can be very proud of the journey so far.”

In recent days, Alpine’s team principal Oliver Oakes resigned and was replaced by Italian Flavio Briatore.

Briatore, 75, was boss of Alpine when they raced as Benetton and Renault and won championships with Michael Schumacher in 1994 and 1995 and Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.

He was also instrumental in signing Colapinto from Williams as reserve last January.

- With AAP