Ted Kravitz shares whether he expects Alpine to retain Franco Colapinto for Formula 1’s next race

Follow us on Google Discover

Alpine’s Franco Colapinto remains the only driver on the grid yet to score a point this season.

The Italian Grand Prix was always going to be a difficult venue for Franco Colapinto to end his increasing wait to get off the mark in the drivers’ championship.

It’s well known that Alpine’s Renault power unit is the weakest on the grid right now.

That underperformance has partially explained why Alpine decided to ditch Renault’s engines from next year and become a Mercedes customer team from 2026.

Alpine have been stuck at the bottom of the constructors’ championship for much of the season, and don’t look likely to catch ninth-place Haas any time soon.

Pierre Gasly extended his Alpine contract until the end of the 2028 campaign, highlighting Flavio Briatore’s faith in the Frenchman.

Briatore initially had doubts about Gasly, but has put his full faith in the 29-year-old, who has scored 100% of the team’s points.

Colapinto is still on a race-by-race contract at Alpine, and Ted Kravitz has provided an update on his immediate future ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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

Franco Colapinto is expected to continue with Alpine at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Speaking on Ted’s Notebook after Sunday’s race, Kravitz explained: “Colapinto ran P17, pitted, and stayed P17.

“He looked exhausted in the pen, but hopes to do better in Azerbaijan because that’s where he’s picked up points before, I seem to remember last year in a Williams.

“So, yeah, hopefully Colapinto will be in Azerbaijan, we expect him to, there’s no reason for him not [to be].

“But, you never know in Formula 1, and secondly, hopefully, they’ll have a better weekend and he might score a point or two.”

Colapinto sent Alpine some concerning radio messages at Monza, and as Kravitz suggested, he didn’t look well after the race in the media pen.

To get to the end of the Grand Prix if he wasn’t feeling 100% was admirable, but he can’t afford to not be at his best in Baku with his future on the line.

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

Franco Colapinto shares his ‘goals’ for the rest of the season after the Italian Grand Prix

Colapinto’s best finish of 11th at the Dutch Grand Prix saw him come extremely close to finally ending his wait to score a point for Alpine.

Alpine have handed Colapinto a boost over his future, but nothing is set in stone yet, and Briatore is notorious for exploring his options in the F1 driver market whenever the opportunity arises.

Speaking after the race, Colapinto said: “Today was tricky, even if we knew that would probably be the case this afternoon on a difficult track for us.

“We lacked pace and struggled to make much progress, which made the race quite long without much action. We tried our best, stuck to a conventional strategy, but in the end, a difficult 17th place finish.

“We will regroup and understand what we can do better next time. My goals remain the same: they are to continue to build up on the experience gained at these past races and find ways to make progress with our car and do our best.

“We will have a week or so now to look ahead to the next race in Baku. I will be with the team in Enstone to prepare and hopefully keep making steps forward.”