Franco Colapinto’s head was down in parc fermé at Monza, and you could read it as a metaphor for his year. Brought in mid-season to replace Jack Doohan, the 22-year-old Argentine has spent 2025 learning the hard way what it means to be an Alpine race driver—and now he’s waiting to find out if that learning curve earns him a 2026 seat.
Alpine’s call is coming soon. The team has narrowed its choice to two from within its own stable: Colapinto, who stepped up from a reserve role in May, and Paul Aron, the highly rated junior. Flavio Briatore has already made it clear they’re not looking outside. Internally, the expectation is a November decision. Publicly, there’s no imminent announcement.
Colapinto’s CV is unusual by modern standards. He arrived at Alpine off the back of a nine-race Williams cameo in late 2024 that made him a mini-star in the Americas, then spent the first six rounds of 2025 watching from the garage. When Alpine pulled the pin on Doohan, they went for Franco’s spark and marketability as much as his upside. The results column since then hasn’t done him many favors: 14 starts, no points.
But results only tell part of the story, especially in an Alpine that’s been unpredictable from track to track. Since the summer break Colapinto’s baseline has crept closer to Pierre Gasly, the team’s reference, and the raw deltas have stopped yo-yoing. It’s not headline stuff, but it is progress—and that’s the currency that matters when a team is weighing continuity into the 2026 rule reset.
Colapinto isn’t pretending to be part of the strategy meetings. “I’m not the one making the decision,” he said before Mexico. “I want to just focus on the driving and try to do well on track. To convince Flavio, you just need to go fast.” There’s no bluster there; it’s straightforward, a little tense, and entirely understandable from a driver who knows the stopwatch is his best argument.
There’s a commercial dimension too, and Alpine won’t ignore it. Colapinto brings serious backing, headlined by a personal deal with Claro, part of the Carlos Slim-linked América Móvil empire historically tied to Sergio Perez. He’s also carried Mercado Libre branding across the United States, Mexico and Brazil rounds in a short-term arrangement. None of that automatically guarantees a contract, but in a cost-capped era where sponsorship still oils the machinery, it doesn’t hurt. It also doesn’t change the fact Alpine wants a driver it believes can grow into the 2026 package alongside Gasly.
So what’s the case for Franco? He’s quick over one lap when the car’s in the window. He’s tidy in traffic. His feedback, by all accounts, has sharpened with mileage. And he’s handled a bruising run without throwing elbows in the press pen—a small point that teams value more than outsiders think. The case against is obvious: a goose egg in the points and a few Saturdays where Q1 bit hard.
Aron, the alternative, is the devil they don’t yet know at this level. He’s long been pegged as one of the program’s best prospects, and the temptation to cash that chip just as F1 pivots to new regs is real. But going all-in on two relatively green drivers would be a very Alpine thing to do—and also a risky one. Gasly’s permanence gives them cover; still, the second seat is where the team can choose patience or a swing.
For clarity: no changes are expected before Abu Dhabi. The late-season flyaways will be Colapinto’s audition in everything but name. If the lap time trend continues toward Gasly and a point or two finally lands, the sporting argument tightens in his favor. If it doesn’t, the sponsorship story will be doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Colapinto doesn’t hide the strain. “Hopefully it arrives to a point that I can race with not so much stress and a bit more relaxed,” he admitted. That candor is refreshing in a paddock that prefers platitudes. It also tells you he understands the stakes: Alpine is trying to put shape on a 2026 project that needs steadiness and upside. He has a chance to show both over the next two weekends.
The final call won’t only be about lap charts. It’ll be about who the team trusts to live with the turbulence of a new engine formula, a new aero concept, and the inevitable messiness of the first half of 2026. It’ll be about commercial momentum in key markets. It’ll be about how a young driver has handled the worst kind of season—hungry for a breakthrough that never quite lands—and whether that resilience is worth banking on.
Alpine’s deadline is November. Colapinto’s deadline is the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. Between now and then, the fastest way to quiet the debate is still the simplest: go fast.
