The decision by Flavio Briatore to promote Franco Colapinto to Alpine at the cost of dropping Jack Doohan was a surprise, given that it happened 6 rounds into a 24-round championship. Many people found that a brand new rookie would need more than six races to come to grips with a less-than-ideal car in Alpine. Even experienced driver Pierre Gasly struggles to perform consistently.
Colapinto’s stint at Alpine has also been heavily criticised after 3 races in which he had one crash, qualified last in Monaco and was again plagued by issues during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. Briatore has emphasised that as long as Franco can perform at Alpine, he will drive for the team. This way of thought is perfectly reflected in a driver swap that happened over 20 years ago. One that saw Fernando Alonso make his Formula 1 return and go for glory.
Flavio Briatore made a controversial driver swap in 2003 favouring Alonso over Button
During the 2000’s Flavio Briatore was team boss at Benetton and stayed on after Renault bought the team in 2002. At the time, Renault had two drivers, Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli. Renault was fast but didn’t seem to have the pace to make it onto the podium with either driver that year. And although Jenson Button was an upcoming British Talent, Briatore made a decision that saw the media turn against him.
In 2003, Flavio Briatore announced that Renault F1 would drop Button and replace him with Fernando Alonso. This would see the Spaniard make his F1 return after a disappointing season with Minardi in 2001. While the decision was controversial in its own right, the fact that Briatore was also Alonso’s manager at the time surely added fuel to the fire.
Briatore was proven to be right in the end, with Alonso taking podiums and a win during the 2003 season. Fernando would eventually become a 2 time world champion with Renault in 2005 and 2006. Button, however, took a little longer to find his feet, winning a championship title with Brawn GP in 2009.
Briatore shows he has never been afraid to experiment with drivers despite backlash from the media
Looking back at that decision back in 2003, in a recent interview with Italian news outlet Corriere, Briatore draws similarities to that moment when asked about the 2025 swap with Colapinto and Doohan:
“Exactly. That’s a good example. Even in the past, I decided to put a very young Fernando Alonso in the driver’s seat — back then he was just a test driver — instead of the more experienced Jenson Button. That decision unleashed the fury of the British press. But in the end, I was right. A manager is always alone when making big decisions. Then, over time, others come around”
Colapinto had a fairly impressive 9 race stint with Williams in 2024, scoring points on multiple occasions. However, these impressive results were clouded by several crashes, which were deemed reckless by the media.
Colapinto still hasn’t scored a single point ever since he started his Alpine stint. However, fans are hoping that the Argentine driver can find his grip and score points consistently.
