The cautious stance reflects the uncertainty swirling around Verstappen\u2019s future. The reigning world champion\u2019s Red Bull contract runs until the end of 2028 but contains performance-related exit clauses. He currently sits seventh in the 2026 standings, 45 points behind championship leader George Russell, and has publicly stated he is in no rush to decide his next move.<\/p>\n
For Alpine, Pierre Gasly is already secure for 2027 and beyond after signing a long-term deal. The focus is therefore on who will partner him.<\/p>\n
![\"Franco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/colapinto-and-briatore.jpg\")
Franco Colapinto and Alpine F1 boss Flavio Briatore after 2026 Miami GP via X<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s current reserve and 2025 rookie, Franco Colapinto, has emerged as the strong favorite for that second seat. After a difficult, pointless 2025 campaign, the Argentinian has shown marked improvement in 2026, out-qualifying and out-racing Gasly at the last two Grand Prix\u2014finishing seventh in Miami and sixth in Canada.<\/p>\n
Briatore has been impressed by both Colapinto\u2019s pace and his maturing attitude. \u201cFranco, honestly, I believe he has the talent to be one of the top drivers,\u201d he said. \u201cFor the moment, we have Gasly and we have Colapinto. For 2027, we have Gasly because we signed with him long term, and then we see. I hope that Franco is doing a very good job from now until the end of the season to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briatore also noted that Colapinto has \u201ccalmed down\u201d after last year\u2019s widespread criticism, adding that the 22-year-old now appears far more focused and professional.<\/p>\n
By waiting on the Mercedes-Verstappen situation, Alpine is keeping its options open. A move by Mercedes for the Dutchman could trigger a significant reshuffle, potentially making Russell or Kimi Antonelli available \u2014 drivers Alpine would almost certainly consider if they became free.<\/p>\n
Until that picture becomes clearer, the Enstone-based squad is content to let Colapinto continue proving his worth on track while Gasly provides stability. A decision on the 2027 line-up is therefore unlikely before the summer break at the earliest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alpine is deliberately holding off on finalizing its 2027 Formula 1 driver line-up while it waits to see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-705295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705295","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=705295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}