{"id":189963,"date":"2025-10-10T07:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/189963\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T07:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:49:08","slug":"alpine-issue-latest-verdict-with-f1-2026-seat-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/189963\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine issue latest verdict with F1 2026 seat on the line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen has offered a welcome morale boost for full-season rookie Franco Colapinto in what has turned out to be an extremely challenging year.<\/p>\n<p>Nielsen points out that Alpine had been happy to see the way Colapinto has evolved as a driver, and that the Argentinian will have a few more races before the team makes any concrete decisions about the future.<\/p>\n<p>Franco Colapinto gains much-needed F1 2026 boost<\/p>\n<p>Franco Colapinto is only 20 starts into his Formula 1 career following his debut with Williams in the latter half of 2024 and his move to Alpine ahead of 2025\u2019s European swing.<\/p>\n<p>In both instances, the 22-year-old Argentinian has taken a seat vacated by a driver that the team opted to part ways with; Logan Sargeant at Williams, Jack Doohan at Alpine. But while Colapinto was able to impress with Williams, his Alpine tenure has been less successful.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Colapinto was able to score points in both Azerbaijan and America, though the latter stage of his season was characterized by a slew of retirements.<\/p>\n<p>This season, Colapinto has finished every race he\u2019s started, but the closest he\u2019s come to scoring points is a lowly 13th in both Monaco and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>More analysis from PlanetF1.com:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/f1-uncovered-hidden-details-revealed-under-the-lights-in-singapore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1 uncovered: Hidden details revealed under the lights in Singapore<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/predicted-what-happens-next-for-all-six-out-of-contract-f1-drivers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russell to stay? Predicting the next move for every out-of-contract F1 driver<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For all of that struggle, it appears that Steve Nielsen, Alpine\u2019s current managing director, is aware of just what a challenging position Colapinto finds himself in, particularly as the F1 2026 grid begins to form up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s difficult for any of the new drivers coming in,\u201d Nielsen said, referring to Colapinto\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen ebb and flow in lots of them that have come from F2; I think five came from F2 last year, which is good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFranco had a difficult start. I think we\u2019ve seen that equalise and calm down a little bit. He\u2019s now had the measure of Pierre in the last, I would say, two or three races, so he\u2019s on a par with him, which is good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know where that slope will end, whether it\u2019s going to continue. We hope it does, and then we\u2019ll make our decision on Franco and whoever else is in the frame when we have to, but we\u2019re a few races away from that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Colapinto\u2019s options for the future have grown slim, with much of the F1 field already formally settling on its future driver lineup or suggesting that specific drivers will remain with the outfit. He\u2019ll be hoping to stick with Alpine.<\/p>\n<p>And while the team\u2019s performance this year may not be much to write home about, the introduction of sweeping regulatory changes for the F1 2026 season promises to shake up the running order.<\/p>\n<p>Read next: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/carlos-sainz-wags-vip-complaint-key-moments-missed-singapore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carlos Sainz\u2019s WAGs and VIP complaint with key moments missed\u00a0in\u00a0Singapore<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen has offered a welcome morale boost for full-season rookie Franco Colapinto in what&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2355,1687,372,6537,2356,348,50,35432,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-189963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-alpine","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-franco-colapinto","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-popular","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}