Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore is not looking to the Formula 1 feeder series when it comes to deciding which drivers to sign, with the current results in F2 and F3 labelled “very confusing” due to the drivers’ fluctuations in form.

Briatore has already said the choice of teammate for Pierre Gasly next season has been whittled down to Franco Colapinto and Alpine reserve Paul Aron, though PlanetF1.com understands there may yet be an outside chance for a return to the grid for Jack Doohan, should the team choose another route.

Flavio Briatore highlights ‘very confusing’ feeder series results

While there have been some runaway winners in Formula 2, Felipe Drugovich’s 2022 triumph coming with a 101-point margin in the biggest gap since rebranding from GP2, the two most recent seasons have seen tight battles for the title, won by Gabriel Bortoleto last year.

Charles Leclerc won his Formula 2 title with a 72-point buffer, George Russell beat Lando Norris by 68 points and Oscar Piastri won by 60.5 points – all three drivers going back-to-back in winning the F2 crown in their debut seasons after winning the F3 title.

Highlighting examples like Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for their exploits in the junior series, marking themselves out with Formula 1 potential from the off.

In the present day, Briatore the inconsistent form shown by drivers in Formula 2 and Formula 3 makes it difficult to hire rookies from that standpoint, with the most recent Formula 2 titles having been decided by 11 and 22.5 points respectively leaving a lack of standout talents catching his eye.

“I don’t see any other possibility,” he told The Race when asked about keeping his driver choices in-house at Alpine.

“We see other ones, but we don’t feel it [anything special] – because the good guys go ‘boom’.

“I remember when Schumi was in Group C with Sauber, he won every race…

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“GP2 was the same. [Lewis] Hamilton was bam, bam, bam, bam. Fernando was driving Formula 3000 or whatever and he was winning every race.

“I remember testing Fernando. I put Fernando in Minardi and Giancarlo [Minardi] called me and said: ‘I have never seen stuff like that’.

“Now, take away Max [Verstappen]. The rest?…[shrugs]”

While there are fewer opportunities to test young drivers in Formula 1 machinery in the present day, Briatore explained how young drivers at the moment face difficulties maintaining consistency in their junior series, which in turn makes it harder to identify talent he would look to hire.

“Did you see the races in F2 and F3?” He asked. “You see one guy is winning a race, the next race he is 14th. You see the next race he is P3 and after one week he is P12 again.

“In our time, GP2, whatever, Hamilton, was there and he finished first, second, second, third, second, third, first, third. It was a very clear indication, no?

“[Nico] Rosberg, bang, bang, bang, GP2. You remember many people from GP2. Now it’s very difficult because you see somebody P1. And after one week, he’s no more P1. He is no more P2 – he is P14. Very confusing.”

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