Hi friends,
The recap is back after taking a short break as we changed the calendars from 2024 to 2025 – and it has definitely not been a quiet start to the year in terms of news. So let’s just jump straight into it.
Top Story of the Week: Franco Colapinto Joins Alpine
There have been almost endless rumours about Colapinto and what his future might hold after Williams brought him on to replace Logan Sargeant for the final stretch of the 2024 season. I honestly think the only team I haven’t heard wanting to sign Colapinto was Ferrari.
But now we know where he’s going: Alpine. He joins the team on a multi-year deal as a Test & Reserve Driver.
Alpine seem to be stocking up on reserve drivers – As I’m writing this, they’ve confirmed three of them: Franco Colapinto, Ryo Hirakawa and Paul Aron.
This increases the pressure on newly-announced Alpine driver Jack Doohan. It’s been widely reported, that releasing Colapinto from his Williams contract wouldn’t come cheap – and it’s unlikely that Alpine would be willing to pay out millions of Euros for the Argentinian, if they didn’t have any intention of putting him in a race seat in the near future.
Rumours have swirled that Doohan’s contract is not for the full season, but rather for six races – one of which he did in the final round of 2024, meaning he could be replaced as early as the Miami GP in May, and with Briatore known to be ruthless when it comes to these kinds of decisions, Doohan has to perform every single weekend until then.
Alpine has signed Colapinto to a five year deal – as revealed earlier this week by his manager, Maria Catarineu. Contracts more than two years are unusual in Formula 1, and are normally reserved for star drivers, like Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen. Signing Colapinto for five years clearly signals they have an intention of putting him in a car.
One thing we need to consider however, is that Alpine may not even be on the grid in five years time. I’ve talked about this a couple of times now, but it seems that Renault is manoeuvring to sell the team. Getting Colapinto, and more importantly his sponsors onboard now, increases the attractiveness of the team to a potential buyer – and that may be Briatore’s end goal in this: To optimise profits before putting the team on the market.
An opportune occasion to sell the team would be when they make the switch from a factory team to a Mercedes customer at the end of this year. That would leave Colapinto with four years to go on his contract, with new ownership taking over – And new owners are rarely fans of long-term contracts they didn’t play a part in signing. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the contract is for a shorter period, with options to extend for a total of five years.
The Other Stories These Last Few Weeks:
- The Belgian GP at Spa will remain on the calendar in 2026, 2027, 2029 and 2031
- Andy Cowell named CEO and TP of Aston Martin, with Mike Krack moving to Chief Trackside Officer
- Felipe Drugovich will continue as Aston Martin’s Test & Reserve Driver for 2025
- Alessandro Alunni Bravi leaves Sauber at the end of January
- Jonathan Wheatly will join Sauber in April
- Will Buxton will leave F1 TV and joind FOX’s INDYCAR broadcast team
- Cadillac will build their F1 engines in Charlotte, North Carolina
- TAG Heuer returns as the official timekeeper of Formula 1
- Long-term Ferrari sponsor Phillip Morris has been removed from the team’s partners section on their website
- Adidas joins Mercedes in a multi-year partnership
- McLaren has taken full ownership of the McLaren Arrow INDYCAR team
- Jamie Chadwick will be the Grand Marshal of the Rolex 24 at Daytona
- Nico Rosberg’s Extreme E team, RXR, has ceased operations at the end of 2024
- Charles Leclerc’s former race engineer, Xavier Marcos, has been named as Cadillac’s WEC Technical Director
- Jonathan Noble has left Motorsport and joins The Race
- Matthew Somerfield has left Motorsport and gone freelance
I’m sure there are things I’ve missed in trying to cover the last few weeks – but don’t worry: The recap will be back a full force next week!
In the meantime, thank you for being here.
If you want to support me, you can help fuel the snack addition that powers me through compiling these lists and vetting the stories – you can do so on Buymeacoffee or Patreon.
