Franco Colapinto will continue racing for Alpine in 2027 in a deal that further narrows the Formula 1 driver market.
Colapinto, 23 years old, arrived at Alpine as a reserve driver on loan from Williams last year and replaced Australian Jack Doohan after just six rounds.
Though the Argentine ended the season scoreless and soundly beaten by teammate Pierre Gasly, he was retained for 2026 in the hope an improved Alpine car would boost his competitiveness.
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Alpine started the year as the clear midfield benchmark, and Colapinto has lifted with it, scoring his first points for the team at the second race of the year. He’s scored in six of the 12 grands prix so far, collecting 19 points to put himself 12th in the championship.
Team boss Flavio Briatore suggested earlier in the year that Colapinto would be retained but left the door open to a shock big-name signing in the event a top driver was displaced — he name-checked George Russell, who last year had supposedly been at risk of being pushed out of Mercedes by Max Verstappen.
But such a play was always a long shot, and with Verstappen agreeing to stay put at Red Bull Racing for the foreseeable future, effectively locking up the driver line-ups at the leading four teams, Colapinto’s retention alongside the already signed Gasly became the obvious choice.
“I am very pleased to remain with this team in 2027,” Colapinto said. “I feel very happy and very settled here, and it’s been even better that we have made significant progress this year compared to last.
“We have a lot more milestones to reach, and I know the team is working so hard in finding performance and making the car better and better.
“Our long-term goals are obvious — to compete and win — and I am grateful to the team, Flavio and Steve [Nielsen, managing director], for the trust placed in me to be one of its drivers going into the future.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how everything plays out and focusing on my job on-track first and foremost.”
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Briatore, who was integral to bringing Colapinto — along with his rumoured lucrative personal sponsors — to Alpine in the first place, said a stable line-up would help the team focus on adding performance to the car.
“For me, having consistency is very important,” he said. “We are now settled from a driver point of view, and I have said many times that, while this is an important piece of the puzzle, the most significant we have to get right is designing and building a fast race car, which absolutely remains our number one priority.
“We have seen Franco truly grow and mature into a great driver this year.
“Franco belongs in Formula 1 and he belongs at this team.
“I expect both Franco and Pierre to continue doing a fantastic job on track and for the entire team to push relentlessly until we are fighting, and winning, at the front end of this sport.”
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DRIVER MARKET STATE OF PLAY
Colapinto’s signature narrows the number of realistically available seats to three, though several more remain formally uncommitted.
Formula 1 2027 driver line-ups
Mercedes: Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell
Ferrari: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
McLaren: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Red Bull Racing: Max Verstappen (out of contract: Isack Hadjar)
Racing Bulls: (out of contract: Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad)
Alpine: Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto
Haas: Oliver Bearman (out of contract: Esteban Ocon)
Audi: (out of contract: Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg)
Williams: Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon
Aston Martin: (out of contract: Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll)
Cadillac: Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas
Isack Hadjar’s extension can be assumed, with Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies effusive in his praise of the Frenchman in just his second season in Formula 1 and his first with the team.
“He has done a fantastic start of the season,” he said. “He has been stronger and stronger every time he has been driving this car out of the garage, session after session, weekend after weekend.”
Audi is also expected to retain both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg.
Lance Stroll’s place at Aston Martin is secure courtesy of his father’s ownership of the team.
The fate of his teammate, however, isn’t as clear.
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ALONSO CASTS DOUBT ON ASTON DECISION
Though Fernando Alonso has been widely tipped to remain at Aston Martin, the veteran Spaniard has yet to commit and has missed a self-imposed deadline to do so.
Speaking earlier this year, Alonso said that “around the summertime or right after the summer [break]” he would need to make a decision, even linking the timing to the annual August Perseids meteor shower.
But when he arrived back in the paddock in the Netherlands last week, he denied that a decision was due and even claimed that he hadn’t even started thinking about his future yet.
“I just came from holiday, so I will see in the next days or weeks or months,” he said, per the F1 website.
Alonso’s decision is widely believed to hinge on how much progress the team and works engine supplier Honda can make after the partnership’s disastrous start to the new regulations that saw it trailing newcomer Cadillac on pure pace for much of the first half of the campaign.
A major upgrade package in Hungary, the last race before the break, moved the team significantly forward, but the jury is out on Honda’s new power unit, introduced at the weekend in Zandvoort, owing to driveability issues.
Honda has suggested it could take several weeks to iron out the problems given the scale of change that has come with this update.
Alonso new loose timeline would appear to be reflective of that, but the two-time champion said that he would also have to consider whether team owner Lawrence Stroll and team principal Adrian Newey saw value in him continuing to drive.
“I will be with this team in one role or in another for the long term,” he said. “It’s not about myself or about who is driving next year or if I’m driving next year or three more years.
“It’s sitting with Lawrence and with Adrian, and if the need for the team is for me to drive, I will consider, I will be happy.
“If I can be more valuable in another position, I will consider and I will be happy as well.
“I know Lawrence is coming this weekend, so I will have a nice lunch with him or coffee and maybe Monza [4–6 September] or I don’t know when he is coming next.
“I will have to go to the factory soon as well to do Madrid simulators, so maybe if Lawrence is around or Adrian, I will sit with them. So maybe in the next weeks.”
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TSUNODA: ‘CALL ME, PLEASE!’
The other key seat is Esteban Ocon’s drive at Haas.
The Frenchman has underperformed this season alongside teammate Oliver Bearman, having been overtaken by the rookie Englishman in the second half of last year.
Haas has been rumoured to have a shortlist of candidates assembled should it pull the trigger on Ocon’s contract — and his career.
Speculation suggested Ferrari Formula 2 star Rafael Câmara is at the top of the list, having surpassed McLaren reserve and reigning F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli.
Yuki Tsunoda had earlier been connected to the seat, but his name appears to have faded in recent months — until his shock appearance at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he replaced Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls.
Tsunoda acquitted himself well for a driver who had never steered a 2026 car with its highly peculiar hybrid power unit.
He qualified only two places and 0.102s adrift of teammate Arvid Lindblad and finished ahead of the Briton in the race, albeit Lindblad’s day was compromised by a penalty.
The surprise cameo may have come at exactly the right time for the personable and marketable Tsunoda.
“Call me, please!” he joked after assessing his race in a plea to any team with a seat available.
“I know what I can do and I think I pretty much showed what I can do to most of the paddock,” he said, per Autosport.
“It’s definitely better having this opportunity rather than not having any opportunity, so not being able to show what I can do with these regulations.
“The rest is up to my manager and other teams who have not decided yet about next year’s line-up if they want to have me or not.”
Alongside the three primary contenders, reserve drivers Ryō Hirakawa, backed by major sponsor Toyota, and Jack Doohan could also be in the mix.
Ocon’s axing is not a done deal, however, and even teammate Bearman admitted before the break that the one-sided comparison between them wasn’t fair, having been skewed by chronic parts issues.
As if to prove that point, Ocon has enjoyed a form uptick in the last two rounds while Bearman has seemingly inexplicably struggled.
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RACING BULLS DECISION LOOMS
The question of the Racing Bulls line-up is unconnected to the rest of the silly season, with Red Bull supplied with its own junior driver program.
Though both Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad are performing strongly, Red Bull-backed Formula 1 championship leader Nikola Tsolov is making a good case for promotion in the junior series.
The winner of the Formula 2 championship is not allowed to compete in the series a second time.
Though Red Bull has previously sent drivers to Japan’s Super Formula as an intermediate step between Formula 2 and Formula 3, Tsolov’s good form could put Lawson in particular under pressure given the New Zealander is the more experienced driver.
Team chief Peter Bayer, however, played down the chance of a driver change, though he said it was the responsibility of team principal Alan Permane to make the decision.
“We are very happy with both Liam and Arvid and the job they’re doing, so we’re not in a rush,” he said.
“We have a good pool of drivers coming up through the junior program. I guess Alan really wants to keep everyone calm, everyone focused, and he will decide when the perfect moment is to inform the drivers and everyone here.”
Asked specifically whether having three competitive drivers vying for the seats was a problem, Bayer said: “No, because, look, as I said before, Arvid and Liam are both doing a fantastic job.
“Liam is P9 currently in the drivers ranking, and he’s shown great pace in qualifying and in races.
“The same really goes for Nikola, who’s doing a really, really good job in Formula 2.
“Ultimately, the driver line-up for next year is a decision for Alan to take, and so he will do the best thing for the team.”