The 2025 driver lineup of Alpine has been one of the major talking points before the cars even hit the track for testing in Bahrain. Alpine signed Australian rookie Jack Doohan in 2024 to take over from Esteban Ocon, who was bound for Haas in 2025.
This decision was heavily doubted by critics and fans alike, as nowadays there are plenty of talented drivers who can be called up to replace you if you’re underperforming. This is exactly what happened after the Miami Grand Prix. Franco Colapinto was called up to replace the Australian as long as he performed well. Flavio Briatore gave some more insight into Alpine’s plans for 2026’s lineup.
Briatore confirms more driver experimentation for 2026 lineup
In Friday’s team principal press conference ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Flavio Briatore, Christian Horner, and Mario Isola of Pirelli took questions from the international press after the two practice sessions had concluded. Flavio was asked about the plans for Alpine for the coming years.
Sticking to the topic of driver lineup for the future, Briatore talks about the newly appointed Franco Colapinto and how he is getting along in the car and on the team.
“Franco Colapinto — we need to wait one second to judge Franco. We need the full race. We did Monte Carlo. It was a very special race for everybody. We made a lot of mistakes in qualifying. And in Monte Carlo, you know, qualifying well is the race. Especially this race. Monte Carlo, it was very boring and very annoying.”
🚨| BREAKING: Franco Colapinto to replace Jack Doohan from Imola for the next five races!#F1 #AlpineF1 pic.twitter.com/LiwQ2SrllU
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) May 7, 2025
Looking ahead to this weekend, Flavio Briatore comments on how long Colapinto will have to impress the leaders of Alpine to secure his seat within the team:
Let’s see. This is the first real race of Franco. Races, I don’t know, honestly. I never tell five races, three races, four races, one race. We see. If Colapinto is performing he’s driving the car. If not, we’ll see. 2025 is a year we need to prepare ourselves for 2026. So whatever experiment I need doing, we’re doing. I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see. Depends on the performance. We’re only looking at the performance — nothing else.”
The lineup of Alpine continues to be a major talking point even at this point in the season, and could remain so as well if Colapinto doesn’t find some good results soon. The car hasn’t been very consistent up until now, with even Gasly struggling to finish inside the top 10.
The Frenchman has managed to score on two separate occasions this season but is otherwise down in P13. Can Colapinto find enough pace in the Alpine car to match him?
