Colapinto replaced at Alpine – The world of Formula One can be the cruelest of places to exist as Franco Colapinto is finding much to his disappointment. The young Argentinian was given his big break by Williams last season, when the decision was taken to drop the hapless Logan Sargeant.
Williams were languishing near the bottom of the constructors tale, just ahead of Kick Sauber, yet despite the obvious deficiencies with the car Colapinto was able to score points in two of his first four races. The high praise from a number of team principals across the paddock was soon to fade as a number of high shunts towards the end of his nine race tenure overshadowed his early form.
Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner was reported to have been in discussions with Williams boss James Vowles, over recruiting the apparent superstar to replace Sergio Perez. But with three driver error DNF’s in the final four outings for the Williams team, those conversations fell away and Liam Lawson was selected as the driver to partner Max Verstappen at the start of the 2025 season.
Briatore raves over Colapinto
The man placed in charge of the Alpine team’s recovery, Flavio Briatore remained confident in the talent of the young Argentinian and with no seat at Williams for this year persuaded James Vowles to release him to the Enstone based team.
“Clearly, Franco is among the best young talents in motorsport right now. It is fair to say his appearance on the F1 grid last year caught many, me included, by surprise and his performances have been very impressive for a rookie driver,” said the Italian. “We have an eye on our future and his signing means we have a great pool of young drivers to call upon and work with in developing the team for future success.”
Yet Alpine had promised the seat vacated by Esteban Ocon to Jack Doohan, who began the year alongside Pierre Gasly. The Australian son of motorbike legend Mick Doohan was given just six races to prove his worth and with a best finish of P13 in China the decision was made prior to the European racing season to switch him out for Franco Colapinto.
Yet the fairy tale beginning at Williams was not to continue for the new Alpine driver, as in his first qualifying session in Imola he crashed heavily. Further qualifying bungles saw Colapinto fail to make it out of Q1 in the following two events in Monaco and Spain.
Disappointing results for the Argentinian
Next time out in Canada there seemed some light at the end of the tunnel for the Argentinian driver, when he out qualified his team mate with a seasons best starting position of twelfth come the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Yet this was not to prove the new dawn Alpine had hoped for their driver, as once again in Silverstone an early mistake in qualifying saw Franco once again back of the pack some the race start on Sunday. He is currently on a race by race contract but reports have emerged in recent weeks that Briatore is unhappy with his driver and has been talking to Toto Wolff about replacing him with Mercedes reserve driver Valtteri Bottas.
The no nonsense Italian Alpine boss is quoted recently as saying, “he needs to be fast, not crash and score points.” None of which have been much in evidence so far and after seven races with the team, Colapinto’s future hangs by a thread which will soon be cut by Briatore if paddock insiders are correct.
With just days between the Belgium and Hungarian Grand Prix, Franco will be given at least one more outing in the pink liveried car he hoped to claim as his own. But the writing is on the wall for the rookie driver, as Ted Kravitz explained during his notebook feature following the chequered flag in Spa last weekend.
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Paddock insider ‘fears’ for Franco’s future
As the Sky F1 presenter ran through the list of driver results in the Belgium Grand Prix, he finally turned to the Alpine duo and Colapinto in particular. “Franco Colapinto, not as lucky, in fact, he finished second-last to Isack Hadjar, who had a problem with his car. So, Colapinto was a two-stop, didn’t work out for him.
“Franco Colapinto, it would surprise no one in Formula 1 if Franco Colapinto wasn’t being challenged significantly for his seat now. Both by the original occupier, Jack Doohan and potentially by Valtteri Bottas. He was given another chance today, and he was 19th, so no points for him.
“At least he didn’t crash, but I feel desperately sorry for Franco Colapinto. I know he can be faster than that, but he’s just not got any confidence in the car at the moment. But see what happens in Hungary with that in a few days’ time on that front.”
Alpine do have options with which to replace the crash prone rookie driver, but a return of Jack Doohan appears one option Flavio Briatore is not prepared to consider. They have another reserve driver in Paul Aron who was third in last seasons F2 championship. Given the mood music from senior paddock figures like Ted Kravitz, it will be the summer break when Alpine decide on Colapinto’s replacement, before the season resumes in Zandvoort.
Alpine A525 a difficult car to drive
Yet the real problem for the team is the A525 challenger for 2025, it is underpowered by the Renault built engine and as Pierre Gasly describes, often feels like its on a knife edge. Renault have taken the extra-ordinary decision for the first time ever not to produce an F1 power unit for a team owned by the French manufacturer.
They will instead buy Mercedes power units, as part of the efforts to restore the Enstone based squad to its former glory as epitomised in the Fernando Alonso championship winning years. That said, the team are once again in rebuild mode, after sacking its senior management including lifer Alan Permane, who fortunately after the sacking of Christian Horner now finds himself in charge of the Racing Bulls team.
The future in F1 looks bleak for Franco Colapinto, having raced and failed for two of the teams on the grid, his chance is surely gone forever.
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The shock sacking of Christian Horner may well have been the final act in the night of the long knives, as the new Austrian overlords who own the team flexed their muscle to remove what to them was an irritant.
Horner had been given carte blanche to run the racing outfit as he saw fit under the auspices of the energy drinks entrepreneurial founder, but the death of Didi Mateschitz during the 2023 US Grand Prix weekend was to change all that.
The men in grey suits who inherited Mateschitz’s authority following his passing made an attempt early in 2024 to have Horner removed. He was accused of “inappropriate behaviour’ by a female employee of the racing team and despite being vindicated twice, leaked documents from the investigation were sent to over 150 senior paddock members in an attempt to discredit him…. READ MORE
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If Doohan were to make a full-time return, it indeed wouldn’t happen with Alpine in any case because F1 organizations don’t typically give second chances to demoted or sacked drivers.
On the other hand, Bottas is more likely to become a Cadillac than an Alpine driver.
Finally, even Aron would replace Colapinto only in extreme necessity, i.e., Colapinto would be sacked during the season, only if truly necessary via some unforeseen circumstances, because Alpine would reach the seasonal driver limit.
Therefore, I highly doubt they’d make another in-season change only for the sake of changing.
Why is Mick Schumacher not being given a chance? It seems Mick has been made scalegiat because of his surname. It is people themselves who made extra high hopes on him and put him in pressure because of his surname. Ig one LOOKS at the last few races of Michał at HAS then he was better then Magnussen. It were the stupid TEAM STRATEGIC ERRORS FROM THE BIG MOUTH AND GOOD FOR NOTHING GUNTHER STEINER THAT MICK COULD NOT SCORE MIRE POINTS. OTHERWISE HE WOULD HAVE HAD MORE POINTS THAN MSGNYSSRN. MICK HAD A AKWAYS A BETTER RACE PACE THAN MAGNUSSEN ON SUNDAYS. BUT THE TEAM STRATEGY ALWAYS FAVOURED MAGUSSRN. GUTHER STEINER HAS SCHIEVED NOTHING AS TEAM ORINCIOSL IN F1 OTHER THAN BEING A HOOD FOR NOTHING BIG MOUTH. TOTO WOLF TOOK MICK AS RESERVE DRIVER BUT NEVER GAVE HIM A CHANCE TO DRIVE THECMERCEDES. IF HE HIMSELF WOULD NOT GIVE MICK A CHANCE ON ANY SINGLE DAY WEEKEND TO DRIVE A CAR THAN HOW COUKD HE RECCOMEND HIM TO OTHER TEAMS. MICK DESERVES A CHANCE. HE IS BETTER THAN MANY WHO ARE CURRENTLY DRIVING IN F1.