{"id":257491,"date":"2025-11-02T11:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T11:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/257491\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T11:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T11:56:14","slug":"2026-alpine-contract-set-to-be-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/257491\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Alpine contract set to be confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franco Colapinto<\/a> has spent much of the 2025 season under immense pressure, with Alpine evaluating his future. Upon taking a full-time seat in Imola, Flavio Briatore set a series of clear targets for Colapinto..<\/p>\n

Broadly speaking, these expectations were to score points, avoid incidents and match the performance of teammate Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n

Due to the A525\u2019s limitations, top 10 results have essentially been off the table for both Alpine drivers in recent months. However, Colapinto has successfully hit the two other targets \u2013 putting a 2026 seat within his grasp.<\/p>\n

\"\"Franco Colapinto of Argentina driving the (43) Alpine F1 A525. (Photo by Hector Vivas\/Getty Images)
\nColapinto turns the tide and establishes himself<\/p>\n

Alpine were perhaps the team with fewest headlines surrounding them after last weekend\u2019s Mexican GP.<\/p>\n

The limitations of the A525 prevented Colapinto and Gasly<\/a> from making an impression, resigned to fighting at the back of the field. This has become a relatively common trend for the Enstone team, who dedicated their attention to 2026 some time ago.<\/p>\n

Of course, Alpine\u2019s decision to prioritise next season does not excuse their poor performance. Others, like Williams<\/a>, managed to stay competitive despite prioritising the new regulations from the start of the season.<\/p>\n

In any case, Alpine have known for some time that 2025 would be a long season. Their main concern, in this context, has been finalising their decision on who will partner Pierre Gasly next year.<\/p>\n

During Colapinto\u2019s first few races with the team, speculation began to emerge about his future. This was primarily driven by Flavio Briatore\u2019s comments<\/a>, as the 75-year-old voiced his disapproval of the Argentine\u2019s initial results.<\/p>\n

Given that Colapinto was put into the seat mid-season, without any pre-season testing, expecting him to hit the ground running was a very high bar to set. Then again, Briatore is notorious for demanding results from his drivers at all times \u2013 irrespective of the context.<\/p>\n

This meant there were genuine question marks about whether Alpine would make changes to their line-up for 2026.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for Colapinto, his position at the team is understood to have been secured. The 22-year-old is performing at a very solid level, generally matching or even exceeding the efforts of Pierre Gasly in both short and long runs.<\/p>\n

Whilst Alpine\u2019s pace has been insufficient for this improvement to materialise into points, Briatore is satisfied with the progression of his younger driver.<\/p>\n

Colapinto is expected to continue with the team in 2026 \u2013 an official announcement should come over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"Franco Colapinto of Argentina driving the (43) Alpine F1 A525. (Photo by Hector Vivas\/Getty Images)
\nAlpine under pressure for a recovery in 2026<\/p>\n

Instability has been the only constant at Alpine over the last eighteen months, with the team\u2019s current position in the standings reflecting some of the volatility behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Multiple drivers, team principals and other senior personnel have come and gone through the doors of Enstone since 2023. For a team that were fourth-fastest just three seasons ago, falling to last in the Championship is nothing short of a disastrous downturn.<\/p>\n

To some extent, speculation about Colapinto\u2019s future<\/a> has distracted from the more fundamental problem at Alpine.<\/p>\n

Next season, however, a new set of regulations will mean there is nowhere to hide for Flavio Briatore\u2019s personnel. Should the French outfit fail to take a step forward in 2026, greater doubts will emerge about their long-term trajectory.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Photo by Sam Bagnall\/Sutton Images (Alpine media gallery)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franco Colapinto has spent much of the 2025 season under immense pressure, with Alpine evaluating his future. Upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[151773,64,63,151774,817,47854,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-257491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alpine-f1-team","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-colapinto","tag-f1","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}