Alpine Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore has detailed Franco Colapinto‘s mid-season transformation that led to the 22-year-old securing a Formula 1 seat for 2026.
After impressing for Williams in a nine-race cameo last season, the Argentine was snapped up by the Anglo-French marque as a reserve driver at the start of the year.
With rookie Jack Doohan’s dwindling performances in the A525, Briatore decided to replace the Australian with Colapinto from the Imola Grand Prix weekend onwards.
On paper, however, the 22-year-old has not managed to fare better than his predecessor. With four races remaining this season, he has yet to achieve a single point.
His struggles to adapt to the A525 further exacerbated his plight, leading to Briatore even commenting that promoting the Argentine into F1 was possibly a “mistake”.
But on the eve of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Alpine has confirmed Colapinto as its driver for next season.
The Italian explained that while his results have remained subpar due to the car’s deficiencies, Colapinto has raised his game to be closer to team-mate Pierre Gasly.
“What’s difficult for all these young kids is that they are arriving in this environment of Formula 1 with a lot of pressure from sponsors, the team, etc,” he told F1.
“Unfortunately, we have a not so performant car. It’s difficult to drive. I believe in the beginning Franco was a little bit lost and he needed three or four races to be much better.
“If you see Franco in the beginning when he started racing with us and you see him now, he’s a different person.
“He’s much more secure, has much more commitment with engineering and he’s done everything to be performing.
“He spends a lot of time to understand better the car. In the last two or three races, the performance of the team is still no good at all, but the performance of Franco was very good.”
Briatore outlines Alpine’s 2026 F1 target
With 20 points on the board, Alpine is en route to its worst finish to a season this decade. But off track, Briatore revealed the team has been gelling better than ever.
“The relationship with Pierre [Gasly] is very good,” he asserted.
“We now have two drivers; we’re working with two drivers. Franco feels like he’s part of the team. He’s one of the two drivers of Alpine.
“Before, we had one driver and everything was on the shoulders of Pierre. Now we have split the weight. It’s on the shoulders of Pierre and Franco. Franco is managing well.”
Briatore has taken the onus to “deliver the right car for Pierre and Franco next year”, with Alpine aiming to capitalise on new regulations to shoot up the pecking order.
And with this, the Italian has also emphatically insisted that the team wants to lead the midfield battle in the latest era of the sport.
“Now we need to keep stability. The team is growing, a lot of new engineers are arriving,” added Briatore.
“We have hired a very good group of engineers and now little by little they are starting to arrive because, with gardening leave, it’s typically six months.
“We are setting the team for next season. We will have a great Mercedes engine and gearbox.
“I’m sure next season will be good for the team and we give our drivers the right car to compete. We are doing the best possible and my target is to be in P6 [next year].”
READ MORE – Franco Colapinto completes Alpine’s 2026 F1 driver line-up
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