Flavio Briatore is convinced that Franco Colapinto will do a good job in 2026 – they worked on one weakness in particular during the winter
Theoretically, Franco Colapinto will already be entering his third Formula 1 season in 2026. However, because he only drove for Williams in the final phase of the 2024 season and also missed the first six races of 2025 with Alpine, 2026 will be the first season in which he will be there from the start.
The Argentine himself explains that this will be the first time he has had a full winter preparation, including test drives, before a new Formula 1 season. There are high hopes that this will be reflected in the results.
In 2025, Jack Doohan was still in the Alpine for the first six races, and only then did Colapinto get his chance. In his 18 appearances until the end of the season, he didn’t score a single point, but still got a new contract for 2026.
Many fans couldn’t understand this decision after Alpine had shown significantly less patience with Doohan. But Flavio Briatore explains that the external expectations of Colapinto in 2025 may have been too high. The Argentine had shown some promising signs. “We spent a lot of time with him this winter because Franco’s problem was mainly in qualifying. In the race, he was as fast as Pierre [Gasly],” Briatore emphasizes. And indeed, there are figures to back up the Italian’s statements.
Team mate Pierre Gasly finished ahead of Colapinto in qualifying in the last six races of the 2025 season. In the race, however, Colapinto came out on top twice in the same period and, with one exception, never finished more than four seconds behind Gasly.
According to Briatore, the team spent “a lot of time in the simulator” over the winter working on this weakness. He emphasizes that Colapinto is already doing “very well” at the factory and explains that the 22-year-old is now also “much more mature” than he was at the beginning.
Colapinto is “no longer the kid we had last year,” emphasizes Briatore, who explains that the requirement for a driver is always “that he does his job as well as possible.” It remains to be seen whether Colapinto will meet this requirement in 2026.
