Analysis

How Franco Colapinto’s stay is just a small piece of Alpine's bigger F1 future

With a combination of stabilised performances and commercial backing, Colapinto has earned his 2026 Formula 1 stay at Alpine. What happens after is more interesting

As widely expected, Franco Colapinto will return to his blue and pink #43 car next year at Alpine, with confirmation coming over the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend that Alpine big cheese Flavio Briatore is keeping the faith in the Argentinian to partner team stalwart Pierre Gasly for a pivotal 2026 season.

Briatore's decision was undoubtedly made easier by a brace of cheques written by Colapinto's Argentinian backers, with he and Gasly sporting a tweaked livery in recent races featuring prominent, yellow Mercado Libre branding.

But with Alpine having narrowed its choice down between Colapinto or starting over with another rookie - the highly-rated but unproven Paul Aron - the 22-year-old's improved performances against Gasly over the past five or six races have convinced Alpine not to throw the baby out with the bathwater once again. After all, Alpine had already gone through the painful process of ditching Jack Doohan (prematurely) and then suffering more rookie blues as Colapinto slowly got up to speed in a difficult 2025 car.

"The 2026 season will be my first full season in F1, and that gives me a lot of peace of mind," Colapinto told select media, including Motorsport.com. "I'm obviously happy and looking forward to 2026, I know it's going to be a much better year than 2025, the car is much more promising, and it has solutions to the problems we are having this year."

Alpine qualifying head-to-head

PIERRE GASLY	11-5 (9-5 without sprints)	FRANCO COLAPINTO
10	Emilia Romagna	15 (no lap time in Q2 - crash in Q1)
18	Monaco	20 (+0.603s in Q1)
8	Spain	19 (+0.253s in Q1)
20 (+0.433s in Q1)	Canada	12
10	Austria	14 (+0.442s in Q2)
10	Great Britain	20 (+0.732s in Q1 - crash)
8	Belgium (sprint)	19 (+0.416s in SQ1)
13	Belgium	17 (+0.222s in Q1)
17 (+0.091s in Q1)	Hungary	14
14	Netherlands	16 (+0.210s in Q1)
19 (+0.111s in Q1)	Italy	18
18 (+0.360s in Q1)	Azerbaijan	16
18 (+0.279s in Q1 – technical fault)	Singapore	16
13	United States (sprint)	17 (+0.102s in SQ1)
14	United States	15 (+0.393s in Q2)
18	Mexico	20 (+0.124s in Q1)
	Brazil (sprint)

Alpine's 2026 gamble sets up intriguing 2027 driver market play

Alpine's horrific 2025 season certainly shows it has bigger issues to tackle than its driver line-up, with the team now destined to finish a distant last with a car that has barely seen any upgrades. But if you zoom out for a second, there are also much bigger issues at play than the identity of its second driver for 2026 alone.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Franco Colapinto, Alpine

Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images

Yes, there has been a dearth of proven alternatives, although Alpine could perhaps have made a play for Yuki Tsunoda. But continuity is important as teams shift to radically different regulations in 2026. There's a reason why most teams have wanted to stick with the same driver line-ups between 2025 and 2026. There are more than enough variables teams are having to contend with between the new power unit hardware and the way those engines will have to be deployed, substantially different aerodynamics and an aggressive weight limit that a lot of teams will struggle to hit.

And with the 2026 form curve a complete unknown right now, it is also no secret that both on the teams' and drivers' side there will be a lot of expiring deals or options ahead of 2027. Drivers will want to have a good look at who has hit the mark with the new regulations and who hasn't, so they are free to jump ship. At the same time, teams who have sacrificed 2025 in the hopes of making giant step next year - and there are several of those - will hope a boost in competitiveness can also give them an edge on what will be an intriguing 2027 driver market, which is set to kick off as soon as the dust has settled over 2026's season opening races and there's no place to hide.

That merry-go-round will be dictated and initiated by the top of the food chain, so expect stories about Max Verstappen's options to start all over again if Red Bull's power unit ends up being a disaster.

But this is also where it gets interesting for Alpine. It is ditching its uncompetitive in-house power units for customer engines from Mercedes and is also taking a customer gearbox for one season. And by ostensibly being the squad that has sacrificed the current season the most to put all eggs in next year's basket, people within Enstone are quietly optimistic that their car will become a much more competitive proposition next year - and with it, also more attractive to high-profile drivers.

Aces that were previously unavailable or simply uninterested in the Alpine seat alongside Gasly, who has recently committed himself to Enstone until 2028, might be prompted to think again if the previously unfancied outfit were to vault to the top of the midfield or higher next year.

That also plays into why it makes sense to not mess with its driver line-up again for 2026. What Alpine needs is as much stability as possible, so it can divert all its attention towards bursting out of the gates swinging next season, and show it can be a force to be reckoned with once more.

If Alpine achieves that, then there is no better bait to entice bigger fish. Meanwhile, it's up to Colapinto to prove that he can be that man too, rather than a lucrative stopgap solution.