Franco Colapinto: Tough love from Briatore is making me stronger in F1

Franco Colapinto says Alpine chief Flavio Briatore's tough love approach has made him stronger as the Argentinian keeps fighting for his Formula 1 future.

Colapinto was signed from Williams as a reserve driver last winter and, after a string of disappointing results for Jack Doohan, Briatore wasted little time putting the Argentinian in the seat instead, debuting for Alpine in Imola.

Results have yet to pick up as Alpine struggles for performance overall, having soon shifted focus to 2026. And Briatore has not minced his words in public when appraising Colapinto's "disappointing" performances, as he wondered if he had made a mistake promoting the 22-year-old so soon.

Colapinto, who is still fighting for his F1 future on a race-by-race basis as he aims to earn a 2026 seat, says he has no issues with Briatore's tough love approach as he felt it only made him stronger.

"I have a very good relationship with Flavio," Colapinto said in a wide ranging conversation on F1's Beyond the Grid podcast, which was recorded ahead of last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix in which Colapinto crashed out in qualifying.

"He's hard with everyone and his way of making the team work and motivating the people - it's sometimes a bit hard and sometimes it can feel, you know, a little bit too much if you don't know him.

"But he's someone I really believe in and someone that I believe is going to move this team forward. He's going to help the team back to the top, so I learned a lot from him this year.

"He made me a lot stronger mentally. I'm very grateful for the opportunity of course he gave me but also for all his process you know that we are going through."

Alpine has been stuck racing at the back in recent races

Photo by: Clive Rose / Getty Images

Colapinto has yet to get off the mark this season after being parachuted into a difficult car to drive, while Pierre Gasly has only managed 20 points over the entire campaign, ensuring Alpine remains a distant last in the championship, a position that will be extremely difficult to escape from this year.

"If you look at the results and you will be like: 'Oof, it's going to be hard for Alpine to get out of that.' But I definitely feel that we are not giving up," he said.

Alpine still has the option of giving its other reserve driver Paul Aron a run out, which made Colapinto's odd qualifying crash in Baku most unwelcome, but the Argentinian did qualify in front of Gasly three times over the last four races and reached Q2 in Hungary.

Asked about his chances of a seat in 2026, when Alpine will switch to customer engines for Mercedes, Colapinto said: "I don't know, and I'm not really focused too much on that. I think I want to keep building on this year. There is more to learn and I have much more to find.

"I'm feeling better in the car and in the team. Of course, it's no secret that the car is not where we want to be and it's not good enough at the moment to win points.

"The time will come when it is, and I want to be ready for that. That's the main focus at the moment, to go race-by-race and moment-by-moment and see where we end up."