{"id":35433,"date":"2025-07-02T07:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=35433"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:03:12","slug":"briatore-criticises-his-drivers-says-alpine-pace-increasingly-concerning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/02\/briatore-criticises-his-drivers-says-alpine-pace-increasingly-concerning\/","title":{"rendered":"Briatore criticises his drivers, says Alpine pace “increasingly concerning”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alpine’s Flavio Briatore is unimpressed with his team’s performance in recent months. Currently rock bottom in the standings, Alpine<\/a> are struggling in a highly competitive midfield.<\/p>\n

Briatore calls on Alpine to improve in all areas<\/h2>\n

Alpine have been no stranger to volatility in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

From their drivers to team principals, changes and swaps are relatively common at the Enstone-based operation.<\/p>\n

In the early stages of the year, Alpine were firmly in the midfield battle. The A525 was competitive enough to fight for points, albeit at great difficulty.<\/p>\n

Over time, Briatore’s personnel have slowly lost ground to their direct rivals.<\/p>\n

The likes of VCARB and Williams, generally speaking, have been faster than Alpine throughout 2025.<\/p>\n

When Sauber<\/a> and Aston Martin<\/a> were less competitive, this was less of a problem for the French outfit.<\/p>\n

Following Sauber and Aston’s upgrades, however, both teams are now significantly faster.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Franco Colapinto in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Steven Tee\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gaining a few tenths can be a game-changer in such a closely packed field – particularly among the midfield teams.<\/p>\n

As rivals have progressed, Alpine have failed to respond with impactful upgrades of their own.<\/p>\n

This has made it very difficult for Pierre Gasly<\/a> and Franco Colapinto<\/a> to score points.<\/p>\n

Colapinto, having joined the team mid-season, is in a particularly challenging position.<\/p>\n

These mitigating circumstances are not excuse enough for Flavio Briatore, though, who demands better from his drivers and engineers.<\/p>\n

Briatore described Gasly’s Q3 spin to AMuS as “not what you expect from a top driver,”<\/em> per Next-genAuto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He added: “The car was quick and should have been well inside Q3 with two cars.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It is important we understand why this is. Especially if we want to turn this season around from its difficult position.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Ultimately, we have lost ground to our direct rivals in the Championship, after another race without scoring points.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And frankly, this level of performance is increasingly concerning.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Pierre Gasly in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by James Sutton\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rumours circulate over Alpine’s driver line-up<\/h4>\n

To some extent, it is natural for senior personnel like Briatore to demand their drivers optimise their package.<\/p>\n

Still, for the 74-year-old to publicly call on Gasly and Colapinto to improve is notable.<\/p>\n

Briatore’s comments demonstrate that even Gasly, a rare source of stability at Enstone, is not immune from criticism.<\/p>\n

Unless Alpine can bring upgrades in the coming weeks, top 10 results are unlikely to become any more attainable.<\/p>\n

In this context, it will be intriguing to see how Briatore responds.<\/p>\n

Having finished in the top 6 for several years, Alpine are on target to have their worst ever season in F1.<\/p>\n

Should they continue to languish at the bottom, it would put into question the magnitude of changes of recent years.<\/p>\n

This is particularly relevant in the context of Luca de Meo – former Renault CEO<\/a> – stepping down from his role, a development that has cast doubt on Alpine’s long-term F1 prospects.<\/p>\n

Now more than ever, it is critical for Alpine to find a stable platform to build upon.<\/p>\n

To have any chance of being near the front in 2026, they will need to out-develop other Mercedes customer teams – including McLaren and Williams.<\/p>\n

Any knee-jerk decisions this year could further complicate their chances next year – which is why caution should be exercised at Enstone.<\/p>\n

Main<\/em> photo: Sam Bagnall\/Sutton Images (via Alpine media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alpine’s Flavio Briatore is unimpressed with his team’s performance in recent months. Currently rock bottom in the standings, Alpine are struggling in a highly competitive midfield. Briatore calls on Alpine to improve in all areas Alpine have been no stranger to volatility in Formula 1. From their drivers to team principals, changes and swaps are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":35435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[1567,2452,1844],"class_list":["post-35433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-alpine","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-flavio-briatore"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35433","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=35433"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35486,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35433\/revisions\/35486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}