Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen believes Franco Colapinto wants time “for that expertise to mature and ship”, because the Argentine prepares to embark on his first full Method 1 season in 2026.
Colapinto first skilled F1 when he changed Logan Sargeant at Williams halfway by way of the 2024 season and instantly confirmed sturdy tempo. He reached Q3 and scored his first factors in solely his second race, in Azerbaijan, earlier than following that up with an SQ3 look in Austin and one other top-10 end later that very same weekend at the US Grand Prix.
He was unable to duplicate these outcomes after being promoted from reserve driver to race driver at Alpine rather than Jack Doohan from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Could 2025, ending the season with out scoring some extent.
Nevertheless, that end result got here amid a deeply tough marketing campaign for Alpine, with the Enstone-based outfit ending the yr final within the constructors’ championship on simply 22 factors.
Having renewed its religion in Colapinto for 2026, Alpine will now give the 22-year-old his first alternative to contest a full season from the outset, full with a full pre-season testing schedule. Nielsen, subsequently, positioned worth on what the Argentine confirmed in the course of the 2025 marketing campaign as he outlined his expectations for the yr forward.
“Franco is a younger driver. We’ve seen different younger drivers undergo good and tough intervals – he’s on that journey,” Nielsen mentioned, when requested about Colapinto on the Abu Dhabi season finale.
Steve Nielsen, Managing Director at Alpine F1
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Photographs by way of Getty Photographs
“There have been races earlier within the yr when he was a match for Pierre, and on a few events perhaps even sooner than Pierre within the races. He’s on that journey, and we’ll give him all of the assist he must be as fast as he may be, whether or not that’s sooner than Pierre or near Pierre.
“The essential factor for us is to have two drivers scoring within the championship. We’ve suffered a bit this yr: just one automobile scored factors, and never sufficient with that one both, whereas the opposite automobile scored zero factors with two completely different drivers in it.
“We want stability within the second automobile, and we have to give time for that expertise to mature and ship factors for us. You want two drivers.”
Alpine endured a very tough latter a part of the season, having halted growth of the A525 early within the yr to give attention to the brand new 2026 rules, whereas rivals continued introducing updates to their automobiles. This left each Pierre Gasly and Colapinto most of the time combating in the direction of the again of the sphere, with the staff scoring factors in only one race – Brazil – throughout the ultimate 11 grands prix of the season.
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“I believe the brutal actuality is that our automobile was not quick sufficient to attain factors,” Nielsen mentioned, when pressed on Colapinto’s personal efficiency.
“I believe each drivers we now have now are higher than the automobile. On the few events when the automobile has been adequate to battle across the factors, we had one in Brazil, the place Pierre certified moderately effectively and raced moderately effectively, and one other in Vegas the place we had been okay.
“When the automobile is sweet, each drivers are greater than able to delivering what the automobile permits. We have to make a significantly better automobile, a significantly better automobile, after which we’ll see if the drivers are able to going with it.”
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