{"id":101125,"date":"2025-08-27T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101125\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:45:08","slug":"james-hinchcliffe-says-alpine-should-consider-replacing-franco-colapinto-with-talented-youngster-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101125\/","title":{"rendered":"James Hinchcliffe says Alpine should consider replacing Franco Colapinto with ‘talented’ youngster in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alpine are one of few teams yet to confirm both drivers for the 2026 Formula 1 season, with just Pierre Gasly signed up so far.<\/p>\n

The team must make a decision on whether to retain Franco Colapinto<\/a> and their confidence in the young Argentine, despite a tricky 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s second from bottom in the drivers\u2019 championship<\/a> and is the only full-time driver remaining without a point.<\/p>\n

Having switched once already this year, another alteration in the cockpit is something that Alpine<\/a> want to avoid, and is probably why they haven\u2019t put Jack Doohan back in the seat yet.<\/p>\n

Gasly \u2018would be worried\u2019 at Alpine<\/a> if current boss, Flavio Briatore, can\u2019t help turn the tide for them as the slowest team in Formula 1<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Alpine must deliver a competitive car in 2026<\/a>; otherwise, they risk losing the Frenchman, who has been superb this season, to one of their rivals.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Pierre Gasly shares Flavio Briatore\u2019s retirement stance amid Alpine\u2019s links to Christian Horner<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AlpinePhoto by Nicolas Economou\/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesAlpine should consider replacing Franco Colapinto with the \u2018talented\u2019 Paul Aron for 2026<\/p>\n

With Alpine considering replacing Colapinto at the \u2018tail end\u2019 of 2025<\/a>, he might not have too much more time to prove himself.<\/p>\n

Apart from a brief spell with Williams, he has made the mistakes expected of a rookie and accrued his fair share of crash damage.<\/p>\n

Despite the sponsorship he brings, his position feels vulnerable due to a lack of results. James Hinchcliffe<\/a> has told Alpine to replace him with another \u2018talented\u2019 star for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure I have a great answer for Alpine. I think you, at this point, look at maybe one of the other rookies that are sitting on the sidelines, one of these reserve drivers that we\u2019ve talked about,\u201d he said on the F1 YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got Paul Aron in the system, who\u2019s keen to get back. I think there are some young, talented drivers. It\u2019s nothing against Franco [Colapinto]. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s nothing against Jack [Doohan], because they\u2019ve kind of both had a shot. You can argue all day long whether it was a fair shot or not. Unfortunately, fair is not the name of the game in motorsports.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Alpine now \u2018don\u2019t want to know\u2019 about signing 39-podium driver to replace Franco Colapinto<\/a><\/p>\n

Which key problem Franco Colapinto is struggling with most at Alpine<\/p>\n

With 16 race starts under his belt, Colapinto has a solid amount of experience to draw on now, which will help his preparations for every race.<\/p>\n

The quicker he finds a setup that he likes, the more time he can spend trying to extract more speed from himself, rather than trying to play catch-up with a car that he isn\u2019t sure about the balance of.<\/p>\n

Colapinto is \u2018struggling\u2019 with a key Alpine problem<\/a> and has been unfortunate to be placed in what might be the worst car on the grid.<\/p>\n

Seeing his teammate fail to achieve much is a true indication of just how poor their current machine is and how much improvement is required for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alpine are one of few teams yet to confirm both drivers for the 2026 Formula 1 season, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1035,49,48,578,576,577,1036,58533,1712,82],"class_list":["post-101125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alpine","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-franco-colapinto","tag-james-hinchcliffe","tag-paul-aron","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}