Colapinto bets his future in Alpine F1 against a single rival

In recent weeks, there has been much speculation about the possible candidates to occupy the second car seat of the Alpine team for the 2026 season. Franco Colapinto is the current occupant, but for now, his continuity is not guaranteed.

Pierre Gasly is a fixed member of the team, but Flavio Briatore must choose who accompanies the Frenchman. Franco Colapinto is now the main candidate, especially after improving his performance in the last races.

And, although the executive advisor of Alpine has not made a definitive decision, it does seem clear that the options of Alex Dunne, Felipe Drugovich, Zhou Guanyu, and Yuki Tsunoda are ruled out.

"These young drivers come to the team with a lot of pressure. It's very difficult to manage the car, very difficult to talk with engineering"

Colapinto vs. Aaron

At least that's whatFlavio Briatore himself has stated, revealing that the decision "is between Franco [Colapinto] and Paul [Aaron]". Paul is a very nice guy and also a very fast driver. And I need to understand what is best for the team. I mean, I have no interest in [bringing in] anyone".

Briatore refers to his previous stint in Formula 1, as team principal of Renault. In those times, drivers like Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli, whom he personally represented, were drivers in the French team.

"Before, people drove me crazy [complaining] because I managed 50% of the drivers [on the grid]. Now, I don't manage anyone. My only interest is to try to have the best available driver. It's as simple as that. I need one or two more races to see, but honestly today I don't know", Briatore points out.

No one stands out on the grid

Briatore's argument for narrowing the choice to two in-house drivers is that he does not see any other who stands out enough to be considered special.

"I don't see any other possibility. We see others, but we don't feel they are anything special, because the good ones are 'boom'", he exclaims. "I remember when Schumi was in Group C with Sauber, he won all the races... GP2 was the same. [Lewis] Hamilton was 'bam, bam, bam, bam'. Fernando [Alonso] was driving the Formula 3000 or whatever and won all the races".

"I remember testing Fernando. I put Fernando in Minardi and Giancarlo [Minardi] called me and said: 'I had never seen things like this'. Now, take Max [Verstappen]. What about the rest?...", he wonders, shrugging afterwards.

Briatore also argues that in the current Formula 2 it is very difficult to identify special drivers, as the performance of some is quite random.

"Did you see the F2 and F3 races? You see a guy winning a race. In the next race, he will be 14th. In the next race, he will be P3 and after a week he is back to P12", he adds. "In our times, GP2, whatever, Hamilton was there and finished first, second, second, third, second, third, first, third. It was a very clear indication, right?".

"[Nico] Rosberg, 'bang, bang, bang', GP2. You remember a lot of people from GP2. Now it's very difficult because you see someone P1. And after a week, he is no longer P1. He is no longer P2, he is P14. Very confusing", the Italian reiterates.

Colapinto starts to shine

For several months, Franco Colapinto's options seemed to have vanished. However, in the last races, the Argentine has shown a more consistent performance compared to Pierre Gasly, which has placed him in pole position for the seat for 2026.

In this regard, Briatore states that "these young drivers come to the team with a lot of pressure. Antonelli, Colapinto, Jack Doohan and this and that. It's very difficult to manage the car, very difficult to talk with engineering. It's a great team. A thousand people, a great responsibility, and perhaps some drivers were brought to F1 too soon".

"After six, seven, or eight races, you will see, Antonelli was better. And after that [Gabriel] Bortoleto was better. After that, Franco is better". We need to consider what we can have", Briatore adds.

His rival for the position is Paul Aaron, a 21-year-old Estonian driver who was third in the Italian Formula 4 in 2019, the European Regional Formula in 2021 and 2022, and also in Formula 3 in 2023, as well as in Formula 2 in 2024 as a debutant.

Last year, he also debuted in Formula E at the 2024 Berlin e-Prix with Envision Racing and this year he is only serving as reserve driver for Alpine in Formula 1. As part of his preparation, Aaron has conducted several private TPC tests (with cars from previous seasons) and has been present at several free practice sessions of the World Championship.

Fuente: The-race.comFotos: Alpine F1