Franco Colapinto is ‘struggling’ with a key Alpine problem that costs him 0.4 seconds every lap

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Franco Colapinto is fighting for his future in Formula 1, having thus far failed to justify Alpine’s decision to replace Jack Doohan with the Argentine racer after eight rounds.

Executive adviser Flavio Briatore decided to demote Doohan back to a reserve driver role in May, having felt the Australian was not producing the results Alpine required. But Colapinto has not proven himself to be an upgrade, and is now fighting to stay on a race-by-race basis.

Alpine initially confirmed Colapinto would replace Doohan on a five-round contract. But the 22-year-old has been allowed to stay, so far, despite failing to score a point in the past eight rounds of the 2025 F1 season. Teammate Pierre Gasly has secured 13 points since the swap.

Questions now continue to linger about how long Colapinto will last at Alpine, who are even last in the F1 constructors’ standings with Gasly’s 20 points this term. Doohan and Colapinto are the only drivers yet to score a single point this season after 14 of the 24 rounds planned.

Franco Colapinto is struggling to adapt to Alpine’s Renault engine costing him 0.4s per lap

But, while it is not impossible that Alpine could replace Colapinto during the summer break, his plight in the A525 has not entirely been the Buenos Aires native’s fault. His best result is P13 in the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, where he also took his best qualifying of P12.

READ MORE: Who is Alpine 2025 F1 driver Franco Colapinto? Everything you need to know

According to Motor Sport Magazine, Colapinto has so far ‘struggled to come to terms’ with how the Renault engine that Alpine use deploys its energy. He found a positive feeling with a Mercedes engine at Williams last year, but is now having to adapt to a very different unit.

Colapinto lacks the confidence in Alpine’s car that he had at Williams, as the Renault engine is not as strong at deploying and recovering energy as Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda’s power units. The Renault unit’s energy management costs Alpine on average 0.4 seconds every lap.

The time loss is not Colapinto’s greatest issue, either, as the way that the Renault power unit recovers energy on the rear axle affects the Alpine A525’s braking performance. It especially causes issues in low-speed corners, which plays directly into Colapinto’s struggles adapting.

What has Franco Colapinto said about the differences between Alpine and Williams’ cars?

Colapinto confirmed at the Hungarian Grand Prix that he has lacked confidence in Alpine’s car from the very start due to the different feeling he gets from the A525 compared to the Williams FW46 he drove over the final nine rounds of 2024 after replacing Logan Sargeant.

“I said since the start that I’m lacking confidence in the car, and that I’m not finding my feet in some corners,” Colapinto said ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he finished P18.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

“I’m struggling to be able to turn in and to come into the corners, and that’s just not really giving me much confidence. I didn’t have this issue last year. I could go straight in and be quick straight away. And now I’m struggling a bit more with that. That’s the reality.”

As well as the differences between the Mercedes and Renault engines, how stiff Alpine’s car is has surprised Colapinto compared to the Williams he drove last year. While the FW46 had its own tricky tendencies, it was a generally softer package and gifted Colapinto greater feel.

But Alpine need more from Colapinto, and Briatore will expect to see an improvement after the summer break if the Argentine is still in their car for the Dutch Grand Prix. Alpine have a bigger problem with Colapinto’s errors than his lack of raw speed, too, after a raft of errors.

Questions linger about the 22-year-old’s future owing to the errors he has made since taking over from Doohan, as well as failing to score a point. Colapinto burnt his clutch out to fail to start the British Grand Prix after also doing so amid Q1 in Spain, when he only qualified P19.