Flavio Briatore ‘pushed’ for Alpine to replace Franco Colapinto just before they renewed his deal

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Flavio Briatore wanted Alpine to replace Franco Colapinto before the 2026 season, one journalist has claimed.

Originally signed as a reserve driver, Colapinto took Jack Doohan’s seat after just six races. The Argentine, whose only prior F1 experience was a brief stint at Williams, failed to score a point before the end of the year.

Alpine were the slowest team in F1 and they had cut off 2025 development to prioritise the new regulations, but Colapinto’s teammate Pierre Gasly still scored 15 points between rounds seven and 24.

Flavio Briatore wanted Alpine to sign Paul Aron last year

Alpine announced last November that Colapinto would keep the seat for another year despite his underwhelming performances. Journalist Jorge Peiro says the deal was finalised at the Mexico City GP a couple of weeks earlier.

However, Peiro has revealed that Briatore ‘pushed’ for the team’s ownership to sign Paul Aron, another of their reserve drivers, instead. Ultimately, he was overruled.

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It’s widely believed that Colapinto brings considerable money to the team through his commercial connections in Latin America. Alpine even announced a special livery for Miami and Montreal to celebrate their partnership with Argentine company Mercado Libre.

Aron, who made three FP1 appearances for Alpine last year including one in Mexico, finished third in the 2024 F2 championship behind Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar. Ultimately, Briatore didn’t get his wish.

Flavio Briatore claims he believed in Franco Colapinto ‘the whole time’

Colapinto enjoyed his best-ever F1 weekend in Miami, reaching the top-10 shoot-out in both qualifying sessions before bagging a P7 in the Grand Prix (partly thanks to Charles Leclerc’s post-race penalty).

While Colapinto collided with Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap, he avoided major damage and held on to his points berth comfortably.

Speaking after the race, Briatore said he has ‘believed in Franco the whole time’, suggesting he feels vindicated by the result. But that doesn’t chime with Peiro’s version of events.

Regardless, Colapinto knows he must build on this result to quiet the uncertainty over his future, having been comfortably outperformed by Gasly at the first three events.