The Enstone-based team has confirmed that its Formula 1 driver line-up will remain unchanged for 2026, with Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto both set to continue. This announcement, made ahead of the São Paulo Grand Prix in 2025, brings long-awaited stability to a team that has undergone more mid-season changes in recent years than most fans have had hot dinners.
Colapinto, who replaced Jack Doohan after six race weekends earlier in the season, may have been anxious about keeping his seat. He remains one of only two drivers on the grid without a single point in 2025, a list that notably doesn’t include Doohan, whose own stint with Alpine also yielded zero points before he was replaced. Therefore, Alpine’s faith in Colapinto appears to be based more on potential than performance.
The press release was released at 10:43 a.m. local time in São Paulo, a nod to the drivers’ numbers, Gasly’s 10 and Colapinto’s 43. Clearly, someone in Alpine’s PR department fancies themselves a numerologist.
Briatore backs Colapinto:
Team advisor and serial comeback artist Flavio Briatore threw his weight behind the decision, declaring himself “convinced” by Colapinto’s potential. “I have followed Franco’s development and have always believed that he possesses the necessary qualities to develop alongside the team,” said Briatore, who appears to have adopted “growth” as the team’s new mantra. “With Pierre and Franco, we have a mix of experience, speed, and talent that can move Alpine forward.”
Of course, ‘forward’ is a relative term. For Alpine, it could mean anything from fighting for podiums to simply escaping the lower midfield purgatory that has become their natural habitat. Nevertheless, optimism is a vital currency in Formula 1, and Briatore is clearly spending it freely.
Colapinto, meanwhile, was predictably grateful for the renewed trust. ‘I am very proud to continue with this team and to drive alongside Pierre, who is a great teammate,’ he said, diplomatically ignoring the fact that ‘great teammate’ often translates as ‘faster benchmark I still need to catch up with’. He also acknowledged the symbolic timing: ‘It’s very special to make this announcement here in Brazil, so close to Argentina. It feels like a home race for me.’
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Colapinto’s Formula 1 career has been a journey of bumps and learning curves
Colapinto’s Formula 1 career so far has been more rollercoaster than rocket ship. After replacing Logan Sargeant at Williams in 2024, he scored points in only his second race, finishing eighth in Baku, before achieving tenth place in Austin. However, these flashes of promise were quickly offset by a series of costly crashes that kept his mechanics busy.
When Williams signed Carlos Sainz to join Alexander Albon for 2025, Colapinto was effectively pushed aside. Facing the prospect of a reserve role, he moved to Alpine as a test driver – a decision that paid off sooner than expected when Doohan’s struggles created an opportunity.
Now, with half a season under his belt, Colapinto has at least managed to perform better than his predecessor did against Gasly. In terms of race results, the Argentine trails 6–8, while in qualifying he sits at 5–9. By contrast, Doohan was beaten 1–5 in qualifying and 2–4 in races, so Colapinto’s performance is clearly moving in the right direction. Progress in millimetres, perhaps, but progress nonetheless.
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A cautious vote of confidence?
Alpine’s decision to maintain the status quo rather than shake things up for 2026 seems pragmatic. Gasly remains the team’s anchor, quick, experienced and occasionally irritable, very French; while Colapinto represents the hope of a younger generation finding its feet.
The pair might not strike fear into the top teams just yet, but they do at least give Alpine continuity, which it has sorely lacked until now.
For now, the team will focus on salvaging some points before the end of 2025, while Colapinto aims to justify Briatore’s faith in him. If he can get on the scoreboard, Alpine’s cheeky number-based press release might look like foresight rather than flair.
As always, the jury remains out, but they’ll certainly be watching to see whether Franco’s promise finally turns into performance.
MORE F1 NEWS – Leclerc SLAMS his Ferrari team “not good enough”
Charles Leclerc claimed his seventh podium for Ferrari this season last time out in Mexico, but his second place may have been saved by a late Virtual Safety Car. Max Verstappen on an alternative tyre strategy had closed a twelve second gap after his pit stop to the Ferrari driver and was battling with Leclerc as Carlos Sainz car came to a halt in the stadium section.
Ferrari are in a tight battle for second place in the constructor’s championship, just a point ahead of Mercedes and ten ahead of Max Verstappen and Red Bull. With Lewis Hamilton scoring just 146 points this year, Leclerc’s 210 have not been enough to see of their main two rivals.
Yet Leclerc is dismissive of the importance of finishing second or lower, given the massive points differential to McLaren who won the team trophy with six race weekends remaining.
Ferrari “not good enough”
“It’s not good enough, no,” said the Monegasque driver. “I think when you drive for such a team, the only thing that is good enough is to win. But it’s also true to say that we are against a very, very strong competition and also teams that have a lot of history in the sport and that are very special in their own way. So, it’s not easy.
“But I think, as Ferrari, when you work for such an incredible brand, it’s not good enough and you’ve got to target winning.”
Hopes were high for Ferrari coming into 2025 given across the final six races they had closed a 74 point gap to the leaders to just fourteen come the curtain falling in Abu Dhabi. Yet a strange decision to build an “all new car,” as team boss Fred Vasseur described the SF-25, in the final year of this set of technical regulations has the the team nowhere again in terms of a title fight.
Ferrari have now surpassed their previous longest drought without a constructors’ title which was sixteen long seasons between 1984-1999. It was 2008 when the championship last went to the Maranello based team, with drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
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