Alpine bets on continuity: Colapinto stays alongside Gasly for 2026
Franco Colapinto will stay put at Alpine for 2026, the team confirming the Argentine as Pierre Gasly’s teammate after a months-long will-they-won’t-they that swirled around Enstone. The decision draws a line under talk he could be cut loose after 13 starts without a point.
It’s a vote of faith rather than a line on a spreadsheet. Colapinto’s season has been scrappy at times—his first Saturday in blue ended with the A525 in the wall at Imola, right as Flavio Briatore outlined the now-famous three commandments: be quick, don’t crash, score points. But Alpine has opted to back the long game and its own talent pool. In September, Briatore made it clear they weren’t shopping beyond the academy, with the choice essentially narrowed to Colapinto versus Paul Aron. The rookie’s name is now on the garage door for 2026.
The announcement leaves just Red Bull and Racing Bulls as the remaining teams yet to lock down their 2026 line-ups.
Colapinto’s path to this seat has been anything but linear. He arrived at Alpine as reserve ahead of 2025 off the back of an eye-catching nine-race cameo with Williams at the tail end of 2024, when he jumped in for Logan Sargeant. This year he was promoted mid-season after Jack Doohan’s six-race stint yielded no points, making his Alpine debut at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Since then he’s been grinding through the peaks and potholes of a true rookie campaign, learning the car, learning Gasly, learning the calendar properly for the first time under full-time pressure.
The raw numbers haven’t flattered him, but internally the picture has been more nuanced. There’s been pace in bursts, improved execution on Sundays, and fewer unforced errors as the season’s worn on. Gasly has set the benchmark at Alpine this year—as you’d expect from a race winner with years in the trenches—and the dynamic has settled into that familiar rhythm of proven hand versus hungry newcomer.
Colapinto, for his part, tried to downplay the noise even as the rumour mill kept chewing. “I’m trying not to speak much because I want to focus on this year,” he said on media day at Interlagos. “We are not in a good position at the moment. We are not performing as we want and as we would expect at this point of the year. So it’s tricky for us as a team to be motivated and to stay strong together, but we are at the moment.”
He added: “I’m going race by race and I’m trying to focus on this weekend.”
Twenty-four hours later, Alpine gave him the clarity every young driver craves.
Beyond the straightforward contract news, there’s a little bit of strategy at play here too. Alpine’s had its share of upheaval; doubling down on a Gasly–Colapinto pairing brings stability and, crucially, a known ceiling and floor. It also keeps the door open for a story that matters outside lap times: Colapinto’s presence connects Alpine to a passionate Argentine fanbase that’s been loud, loyal and very online since his Williams stint. That isn’t why you sign a driver, but when the on-track case is developing and the off-track case is strong, it nudges a marginal call.
Does this lock anything in for 2026 competitively? Not really. But it tells you how Alpine wants to build: with an experienced reference and a rookie they believe will start paying them back in points rather than just promise. Briatore’s rulebook hasn’t changed; he’s simply given Colapinto a longer runway to satisfy it.
As for the broader market picture, the dominoes are almost all down now. With Alpine done, all eyes drift to Milton Keynes and Faenza. Red Bull and Racing Bulls hold the last cards for 2026.
For Colapinto, the mission between now and Abu Dhabi is simple enough to write and hard enough to do: get that first score on the board, tidy up the Saturdays, and make sure when winter comes, nobody’s debating whether he belongs. Alpine’s just answered that. The rest is on him.
