22-year-old youngster could earn Alpine 2025 seat if he has ‘strong’ season

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Things aren’t going well on track for Alpine this season already, but they could look towards Victor Martins in 2025 to bring a new driver through their academy.

Both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly are in the final years of their contract meaning the team have two big decisions to make in the coming months.

Writing on the Formula 1 website, journalist Lawrence Barretto believes the 22-year-old Frenchman could be a contender to replace either of his fellow countrymen.

Martins is a contender for Alpine in 2025

It’s safe to say that things aren’t going well for Alpine so far this year.

They were the slowest team in Bahrain by quite some margin and their car is still overweight compared to where it should be.

The team failed a crash test in the winter due to accommodations made for Ocon, while there’s been a flurry of resignations in the past week.

There are some positives with one of the directors promoted as a result of those departures very well regarded within F1, but it’s unlikely he’ll be able to have an immediate positive impact.

However, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly might decide that they want to explore other options next year if things don’t get better soon.

Alpine may therefore need to look for at least one new driver and might struggle to attract any established drivers if they’re still the slowest team on the grid.

They could therefore look towards Alpine youngster Victor Martins for the 2025 season.

Jack Doohan is the team’s official reserve driver and has been backed to make the step up next year.

But, he’s not racing in any series this season and if Martins ends the campaign in good form, that could suddenly give him the edge over the Australian.

Alpine have several academy talents to choose from

Talking about Alpine’s plans, Barretto said: “Alpine have options to promote from within. Jack Doohan has been [the] reserve since the beginning of 2023 and clocked up thousands of kilometres in Alpine machinery.

“Fellow academy driver Victor Martins, who is competing in F2 this year, is also a contender for a seat, providing he delivers a strong and consistent campaign this year.”

Victor Martins didn’t have the best start to his F2 campaign in Bahrain and will know he needs to deliver better results if he wants to drive for Alpine in 2025.

He was out-qualified by rookie teammate and Williams youngster Zak O’Sullivan and fell down the order in the Sprint Race, failing to score a point.

In the feature race, he lasted just 17 laps before his engine failed.

Martins is a former F3 champion but will know he needs to impress this season if he’s going to make the step up to F1.

As Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire have proven, being a third-year F2 champion doesn’t guarantee a place on the Formula 1 grid.