{"id":37825,"date":"2025-11-02T04:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=37825"},"modified":"2025-11-02T04:26:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T09:26:48","slug":"franco-colapinto-2026-alpine-contract-set-to-be-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/11\/02\/franco-colapinto-2026-alpine-contract-set-to-be-confirmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Franco Colapinto: 2026 Alpine contract set to be confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franco Colapinto<\/a> has spent much of the 2025 season under immense pressure, with Alpine evaluating his future. Upon taking a full-time seat in Imola, Flavio Briatore set a series of clear targets for Colapinto..<\/p>\n

Broadly speaking, these expectations were to score points, avoid incidents and match the performance of teammate Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n

Due to the A525’s limitations, top 10 results have essentially been off the table for both Alpine drivers in recent months. However, Colapinto has successfully hit the two other targets – putting a 2026 seat within his grasp.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Franco Colapinto of Argentina driving the (43) Alpine F1 A525. (Photo by Hector Vivas\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colapinto turns the tide and establishes himself<\/h2>\n

Alpine were perhaps the team with fewest headlines surrounding them after last weekend’s Mexican GP.<\/p>\n

The limitations of the A525 prevented Colapinto and Gasly<\/a> from making an impression, resigned to fighting at the back of the field. This has become a relatively common trend for the Enstone team, who dedicated their attention to 2026 some time ago.<\/p>\n

Of course, Alpine’s decision to prioritise next season does not excuse their poor performance. Others, like Williams<\/a>, managed to stay competitive despite prioritising the new regulations from the start of the season.<\/p>\n

In any case, Alpine have known for some time that 2025 would be a long season. Their main concern, in this context, has been finalising their decision on who will partner Pierre Gasly next year.<\/p>\n

During Colapinto’s first few races with the team, speculation began to emerge about his future. This was primarily driven by Flavio Briatore’s comments<\/a>, as the 75-year-old voiced his disapproval of the Argentine’s initial results.<\/p>\n

Given that Colapinto was put into the seat mid-season, without any pre-season testing, expecting him to hit the ground running was a very high bar to set. Then again, Briatore is notorious for demanding results from his drivers at all times – irrespective of the context.<\/p>\n

This meant there were genuine question marks about whether Alpine would make changes to their line-up for 2026.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for Colapinto, his position at the team is understood to have been secured. The 22-year-old is performing at a very solid level, generally matching or even exceeding the efforts of Pierre Gasly in both short and long runs.<\/p>\n

Whilst Alpine’s pace has been insufficient for this improvement to materialise into points, Briatore is satisfied with the progression of his younger driver.<\/p>\n

Colapinto is expected to continue with the team in 2026 – an official announcement should come over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Franco Colapinto of Argentina driving the (43) Alpine F1 A525. (Photo by Hector Vivas\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alpine under pressure for a recovery in 2026<\/h4>\n

Instability has been the only constant at Alpine over the last eighteen months, with the team’s current position in the standings reflecting some of the volatility behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Multiple drivers, team principals and other senior personnel have come and gone through the doors of Enstone since 2023. For a team that were fourth-fastest just three seasons ago, falling to last in the Championship is nothing short of a disastrous downturn.<\/p>\n

To some extent, speculation about Colapinto’s future<\/a> has distracted from the more fundamental problem at Alpine.<\/p>\n

Next season, however, a new set of regulations will mean there is nowhere to hide for Flavio Briatore’s personnel. Should the French outfit fail to take a step forward in 2026, greater doubts will emerge about their long-term trajectory.<\/p>\n

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

Franco Colapinto has spent much of the 2025 season under immense pressure, with Alpine evaluating his future. Upon taking a full-time seat in Imola, Flavio Briatore set a series of clear targets for Colapinto.. Broadly speaking, these expectations were to score points, avoid incidents and match the performance of teammate Pierre Gasly. Due to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":37827,"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":[2575,2343,2452],"class_list":["post-37825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-alpine-f1-team","tag-colapinto","tag-f1-2025-season"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37825","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=37825"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37835,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37825\/revisions\/37835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}