{"id":873368,"date":"2026-08-27T13:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/873368\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:28:10","slug":"f1-fans-declare-silly-season-now-serious-season-after-franco-colapinto-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/873368\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 fans declare &#8216;silly season now serious season&#8217; after Franco Colapinto deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Formula 1 fans have shared their thoughts on Franco Colapinto&#8217;s contract extension with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/alpine\/24858\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alpine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine has officially secured his F1 future with Alpine, signing a contract extension to remain alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/pierre-gasly\/19626\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pierre Gasly<\/a> for the 2027 season. Colapinto has impressed the Enstone outfit since stepping up from a reserve driver role to replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/jack-doohan\/454760\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jack Doohan<\/a> during the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>After the first 12 rounds of the 2026 season, Colapinto sits 12th in the drivers&#8217; championship with 19 points. By comparison, Gasly is 10th with 44 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/max-verstappen\/17529\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Max Verstappen<\/a> signed a contract extension that will keep him at Red Bull until the end of 2030 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/williams\/13\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Williams<\/a> secured contract extensions with its current drivers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/alex-albon\/109625\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alex Albon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/carlos-sainz\/15916\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Carlos Sainz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While numerous\u00a0rumours about driver movement circulated the paddock, the string of contract extension announcements has shut down multiple silly season rumours.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Silly season now serious season. Happy for him though!&#8221; one fan posted on Reddit, while another added: &#8220;This season is so sensible that it\u2019s silly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Very good to see. Colapinto has improved significantly in his time with Alpine and is more often than not following closely behind Pierre, which is no easy feat. Vamos Franco!!&#8221; wrote another fan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even though he took over the seat from a fellow Australian I\u2019ve come to quite like his personality, and he\u2019s quite fast too at points. Looking forward to seeing him on the track next year,&#8221; someone else posted, while another added: &#8220;Sensible decision.\u00a0I think he&#8217;s doing a good job. Plus, he&#8217;s bringing in some good sponsor money, and he&#8217;s highly appreciated in his home country, so why fire him?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Further reactions included: &#8220;At this rate the only change on the grid could be Ocon,&#8221; and &#8220;The guy has been holding on really well. Well deserved. Happy for him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 fans have shared their thoughts on Franco Colapinto&#8217;s contract extension with Alpine. The Argentine has officially&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1035,49,48,48037,578,303215,576,577,1036,82,4962,59857],"class_list":["post-873368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alpine","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dutch-gp","tag-f1","tag-f1-fans-declare-silly-season-now-serious-season-after-franco-colapinto-deal","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-franco-colapinto","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam","tag-zandvoort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873368","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=873368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}