Race Week Recap #54 – The Colapinto Edition

Franco Colapinto navigating the streets at the 2025 edition of the Monaco GP

Hi friends,

I think I finally fixed my sleep schedule after Le Mans! Just in time for the 24 Hours of Spa this weekend!

Top Story of the Week: Colapinto Set To Keep the Alpine Seat – For Now

The Alpine driver carousel slows—but doesn’t stop. Franco Colapinto will keep Jack Doohan’s former seat beyond this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, even though his original five-race evaluation is technically complete. Team insiders say the contract now extends on a race-by-race basis. In theory Colapinto could be swapped out at any point. In practice, the longer he stays in the seat, the higher the bar for change keeps rising.

Performance is not the headline argument. On raw pace the Argentine driver has only marginally outperformed the Australian. His best results equalling Doohan with 13th in Monaco and Canada, still yielding no points. But what Colapinto does bring is cash: partnerships with Banco BRB, Mercado Libre and YPF, among others.

Doohan cannot match that war-chest. The Australian’s support network is solid, but the numbers are lower. And in a year where Luca de Meo’s exit has put question marks on discretionary spending across the Renault Group, the extra sponsor income give Colapinto a tangible cushion.

The timing matters for Alpine as well. With Renault’s board still searching for a new CEO, Briatore may be reluctant to create fresh turbulence by reversing a driver decision only weeks after making it. A stable line-up is easier to pitch to a new chief than a public acknowledgement that the first reshuffle failed.

Colapinto’s sponsorship haul buy him breathing room, but the arrangement is inherently fragile. Alpine has a history of pursuing higher-profile drivers whenever opportunity knocks, and the team’s rear-grid drift means any driver who can promise immediate points will be tempting. Colapinto therefore races with a financial safety net rather than a multi-year guarantee. One costly error or a standout performance could still flip the scales either way.

For now, Flavio Briatore appears content to keep major driver decisions on hold until Renault installs a new CEO. A fresh chief executive will arrive with new targets and, quite possibly, a different appetite for both spending and risk in Formula 1. Until that piece falls into place, Alpine is unlikely to reshuffle again—making Colapinto’s tenure safe week-to-week but far from assured in the longer run.

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Posted by Jeppe H. Olesen

I write things about motorsports.