Alpine F1 weighs Franco Colapinto’s future as Briatore hints at 2026 driver changes, with Perez, Bottas, and Schumacher linked.
Flavio Briatore has walked back his earlier statement about not being “at all satisfied” with Franco Colapinto, but he continues to cast doubt over whether the Argentine will see out the season, as other potential candidates knock at the door.
The Alpine F1 advisor recently sidelined Jack Doohan to give the highly rated and well-backed Colapinto a run of no fewer than five races.
Briatore was quick to deny that the 21-year-old rookie was strictly limited to five appearances, but just before the recent Spanish Grand Prix, he admitted he was not impressed with Colapinto’s first two outings at Imola and Monaco.
“He crashed out in his very first race weekend. To say I was satisfied would be a lie,” he now justifies.
Briatore also emphasized that Colapinto simply needs more time. Just ahead of Barcelona, he said: “We have to wait before judging Franco. We’ll see. We’ll see this race. Barcelona is Franco’s first real race.”
In Barcelona, Colapinto qualified second-to-last, while teammate Pierre Gasly made it into Q3. Gasly went on to finish 8th, with Colapinto in 15th.
Ahead of Colapinto’s fourth race for Alpine F1 in Canada this weekend, Briatore insists the support remains.
“Pierre and Franco are working hard with the engineers to move the team forward. They have my full support.”
“Franco is still in the adaptation phase. I’m satisfied with the way the drivers and the team are committing themselves to get out of a tough situation.”
Experienced drivers like Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, and Mick Schumacher have recently been mentioned as options for 2026—or even sooner.
“If Colapinto performs, he drives the car. If not, we’ll see,” Briatore replies, without denial.
“2025 is a year for preparing for 2026, to have the best possible driver pairing. So whatever experiments I want to carry out, we’ll do them.”
“I don’t know at the moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but we’ll see. We’re only looking at performance, nothing else.”
