{"id":33549,"date":"2025-05-07T03:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T07:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=33549"},"modified":"2025-05-07T03:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T07:44:14","slug":"alpine-sign-colapinto-on-5-race-deal-as-they-assess-our-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/07\/alpine-sign-colapinto-on-5-race-deal-as-they-assess-our-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine sign Colapinto on 5-race deal as they &#8220;assess our options&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After months of speculation, Franco Colapinto replaces <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/05\/jack-doohan-at-risk-of-losing-alpine-seat-before-imola\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Jack Doohan<\/a> at Alpine. The 21-year-old returns to F1 after his late-season stint with Williams last year.<\/p>\n<p>This news is not necessarily a surprise, given that Doohan&#8217;s position at Alpine has always been precarious.<\/p>\n<p>Still, seeing a driver lose their seat in such abrupt fashion is very unusual in modern F1.<\/p>\n<p>Flavio Briatore, Alpine&#8217;s Executive Advisor and acting Team Principal, has explained the decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Briatore justifies swapping Doohan with Colapinto after six rounds<\/h2>\n<p>It was only six months ago that Alpine replaced Esteban Ocon (who spent half a decade with the team) with Jack Doohan for the Abu Dhabi GP.<\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s decision to replace Ocon in such circumstances was evidence of Briatore&#8217;s cut-throat driver approach.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, Oliver Oakes became team principal last season.<\/p>\n<p>However, for all intents and purposes, it is Briatore who has been the main authority on Alpine&#8217;s driver line-up.<\/p>\n<p>Oakes&#8217; recent resignation seems a clear indication of his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/21\/alpine-reportedly-divided-on-doohan-and-colapinto-preference\/\" target=\"_self\">disagreement with the 74-year-old&#8217;s decision to swap Doohan and Colapinto<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"aIobxvZeTrhJHK_oWcGH4g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2210977990\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'aIobxvZeTrhJHK_oWcGH4g',sig:'69jtv-BmpZB7UCT-6np-mMiRIiT37uDdBFRbPqg0txM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2210977990',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Regardless, Briatore decided to pull the trigger and replace Doohan with Colapinto after just six races.<\/p>\n<p>In a team statement, the Executive Advisor explained his driver swap:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We also know the 2026 season will be an important one for the team and having a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season is the right thing to do in order to maximise our ambitions next year. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We continue to support Jack at the team, as he has acted in a very professional manner in his role as a race driver so far this season. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The next five races will give us an opportunity to try something different and after this time period we will assess our options.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Alpine have other options<\/h4>\n<p>The nature of Colapinto&#8217;s contract has been covered extensively in LWOS over recent months.<\/p>\n<p>When Alpine signed Colapinto as reserve driver in January, it came at the expense of tens of millions &#8211; which were necessary to break the Argentine from his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/04\/f1-news-williams-in-far-better-shape-heading-into-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Williams<\/a> contract.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"57sLCxrmRLhNhVIwkK5wPw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2213210315\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'57sLCxrmRLhNhVIwkK5wPw',sig:'R_nxnnWu1F1qLNsRNXCFsXMVcwsXD3fKkYiJs2SY6XU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2213210315',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>They signed a multi-year deal with the Argentine, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/20\/colapinto-one-of-most-important-alpine-assets-briatore\/\" target=\"_self\">signalling Briatore&#8217;s intention<\/a> to having him at the centre of his project.<\/p>\n<p>Inevitably, this created immense project on Doohan &#8211; whose chances of finishing the year at Alpine were always limited.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst Colapinto is the beneficiary of this latest sequence, his place is not necessarily guaranteed either.<\/p>\n<p>He is only guaranteed a seat for the next five races, which automatically puts the pressure on him to deliver.<\/p>\n<p>Considering his performances against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/14\/alex-albon-of-course-drivers-disagree-with-latest-fia-changes\/\" target=\"_self\">Alex Albon<\/a> last year, there is no reason he cannot quickly adapt to the A525.<\/p>\n<p>Still, he also drives in the knowledge that Alpine have other reserve driver waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Aron is among them, with the Estonian participating in an Alpine TPC test alongside Colapinto last month.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond Alpine&#8217;s pool of reserve drivers, there is always the chance that another option peaks Briatore&#8217;s interest.<\/p>\n<p>Over the coming months, the Enstone outfit&#8217;s driver situation will likely continue to evolve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After months of speculation, Franco Colapinto replaces Jack Doohan at Alpine. The 21-year-old returns to F1 after his late-season stint with Williams last year. This news is not necessarily a surprise, given that Doohan&#8217;s position at Alpine has always been precarious. Still, seeing a driver lose their seat in such abrupt fashion is very unusual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":30677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2501,2452,1818],"class_list":["post-33549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-a525","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-franco-colapinto"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33550,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33549\/revisions\/33550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}