Felipe Massa has just made a Franco Colapinto claim that’s off the mark after 2026 Alpine renewal

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Franco Colapinto has managed to secure another year on the Formula 1 grid, despite being one of just two point-less drivers in 2025.

He’s had a bit of a hard time at Alpine this year, who have battled with an underdeveloped car, leaving their drivers with a difficult assignment on track.

Bottom of the drivers’ championship, and with eyes firmly on the 2026 F1 regulations for some time, they haven’t been fussed with the outcome of this season for some time.

Facing a tricky driver selection dilemma, they opted to retain Colapinto and give him a fair shot in what should be a much better car from next March.

Flavio Briatore placed ‘great importance’ on Colapinto’s sponsors, but it’s the wrong reason for signing him if he wanted to keep him around. He should’ve done it for his potential and upside.

After watching him for the majority of the campaign, Damon Hill thinks Colapinto has more to prove within the cockpit if he wants to prove that he belongs at the very top.

READ MORE: Martin Brundle instantly reacts to Alpine keeping Franco Colapinto for 2026

Felipe Massa is wrong about Franco Colapinto’s maiden F1 gig with Williams

Alpine saw one ‘clear’ sign from Colapinto and were convinced by an uptick in his recent qualifying form. He hasn’t been able to match his teammate across the season, but he has come on better recently.

After a testing campaign, Colapinto faces an ‘increasingly serious’ issue at Alpine of not having enough engine parts to get them through 2025.

Renault’s shutdown of their engine division hasn’t done them any favours ahead of their new partnership with Mercedes. At least they will potentially have a faster and more reliable engine soon.

Timo Glock doesn’t understand why Colapinto is on the grid and hasn’t been very impressed by his performances, which is the polar opposite of one of his ex-rivals.

Felipe Massa thinks that Colapinto started ‘incredibly well’ with Williams in 2024, and although he scored points, he also crashed a lot. So far, it’s hard to see how he’s earned another gig.

“He started incredibly well last year with Williams,” Massa told Infobae. “Then he struggled a bit with so many incidents. That, perhaps, wasn’t a good situation for him mentally.

“This year, he also struggled a bit with some situations, like a few incidents as well. I hope this serves as an important experience for him and that he can have a very different championship next year.”

READ MORE: Ralf Schumacher names which three current F1 drivers are ‘significantly worse’ than Mick Schumacher

What has Franco Colapinto’s form been like over the last six Formula 1 races?

At the age of 22, Colapinto still has a lot of racing ahead of him, and he was thrown in a bit at the deep end in 2024.

Since then, he has been on a steep learning curve. Unfortunately, there’s really only one positive for his season other than securing a new contract.

He’s yet to retire from a Grand Prix in 2025, but over the last six races, he has failed to finish higher than 15th.

Colapinto’s highlight was an 11th in a somewhat crazy Dutch Grand Prix, but he hasn’t really had the car to compete for points, either. If he starts 2026 poorly, then he could find himself under pressure quickly.