When Red Bull axed Liam Lawson just two rounds into the season, they replaced him with a driver who was very much a known quantity. Yuki Tsunoda had already spent four seasons and two grands prix at their second F1 team.<\/p>\n
In contrast, when Alpine jettisoned Jack Doohan four rounds later, they replaced him with a driver who had started barely any more races than him, and all for another team. They clearly expected a lot from Franco Colapinto<\/a>.<\/p>\n But if Colapinto has performed better than Doohan, it isn\u2019t by much. He\u2019s now started more races this season than his predecessor with precious little to choose between them in terms of results.<\/p>\n Doohan peaked with a 13th-place finish in his second round. Colapinto did likewise, then repeated it as his fourth. Both have been similarly far off Pierre Gasly\u2019s<\/a> pace in qualifying and unable to match his incursions into Q3.<\/p>\n Franco Colapinto<\/p>\n Best GP start GP finish Points Colapinto has pushed a little too hard at times in his efforts to do so, crashing in Q1 at Imola and spinning out in the same session at Silverstone. These errors have at least been less frequent and less destructive than Doohan\u2019s crashes, though forcing off Oscar Piastri<\/a> while being lapped by the McLaren driver in Austria stands out as one of the silliest mistakes seen in a grand prix this year.<\/p>\n Arguably Colapinto has had a harder time than Doohan as Alpine\u2019s car has dropped further from the pace as the season has progressed. The team has not shied away from admitting it prioritised its 2026 car development from an early stage.<\/p>\n As the summer break approached, Colapinto completed his five-round trial run at Alpine yet has remained in the car. How much longer he gets to do so remains to be seen: the team has placed another of its reserve drivers, Paul Aron, at Sauber to gain practice experience. It\u2019s impossible to ignore that in last week\u2019s Pirelli test at the Hungaroring, Colapinto crashed out of his half-day session in the Alpine mule car \u2013 a day after Aron had completed over 150 trouble-free laps.<\/p>\n Replacing him would seem an unjustly hasty verdict on his abilities, but the same was arguably true for Doohan.<\/p>\n Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWorst<\/p>\n
\n10
\n20<\/p>\n
\n13 (x2)
\n19<\/p>\n
\n0<\/p>\n