Why Alpine won’t confirm Franco Colapinto for 2026 now despite ‘most impressive’ Singapore display

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Alpine driver Franco Colapinto is once again entering the final stages of a Formula 1 season, fighting for his future.

Last year, Franco Colapinto burst onto the scene at Williams, turning heads with two points finishes in his first four races.

However, he couldn’t add to his tally in the drivers’ championship after the United States Grand Prix, ending the campaign with five pointless races and several huge crashes.

Despite this, Alpine signed Colapinto on loan as a reserve driver this year, with his path to a race seat at Williams blocked by Alex Albon and new signing Carlos Sainz.

Six races into the 2025 season, Alpine called on Colapinto to replace Jack Doohan as the Australian failed to score a point for the French team.

Pierre Gasly has shown throughout the year how difficult that is, with Alpine set to finish bottom of the constructors’ championship.

The Singapore Grand Prix was arguably Colapinto’s best weekend of the season, even if he didn’t finish as close to the points as in Zandvoort.

The 22-year-old qualified ahead of Gasly before beating him in the race, but it wasn’t enough to convince Flavio Briatore to put pen to paper on a new deal for 2026.

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

Alpine in no rush to offer Franco Colapinto a new deal despite impressive Singapore Grand Prix

Journalist Edd Straw was asked on The Race F1 Podcast if Colapinto warrants re-signing by Alpine after a strong showing in Singapore.

He explained: “Franco Colapinto had a very strong weekend, actually.

“I think you could probably argue this was, in many ways, his most impressive weekend simply because he was just stronger than Gasly.

“I know Gasly didn’t get to do his final qualifying lap because of that oil system problem he had, but Colapinto drove very, very well.

“He has been improving since Hungary, I think you’d probably say he’s trending quite well towards it.

“However, Alpine are not going to do a deal now because they don’t need to confirm a driver for next season. There’s not any competition, so they won’t do it yet.

“But I would say Colapinto is on a nice curve of progression and doing a good job measuring well against Gasly. So yeah, he was stronger than Gasly overall this weekend.

“So, a good positive trend for Colapinto. And as Flavio Briatore said, it’s basically between him and [Paul] Aron for next season.

“You’re always in a good position if you’re the incumbent, and if you’re doing a good job in the car, you will be in a very good position.

“It’s just a shame the Alpine is so dreadful that in recent weekends, no matter how well you drive, you are not going to score points.”

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

Franco Colapinto laments tyre degradation issues at the Singapore Grand Prix

Alpine have the weakest power unit on the grid, and despite Colapinto’s brilliant start, he was always going to struggle to break into the top 10.

Even though several drivers ran long and were gambling on a safety car coming out, Colapinto’s Alpine didn’t have the required pace to capitalise on an undercut.

Colapinto is up against Paul Aron for a seat alongside Gasly next year, and unless the Estonian is doing something unbelievable behind the scenes, the 22-year-old should be in pole position to be retained.

On top of that, Doohan has been linked with joining Haas, suggesting that he knows his path back to Formula 1 is currently blocked.

Reflecting on the race in Alpine’s official post-race media session, Colapinto said: “It was a long race with lots of close battles out there, which was fun, but ultimately, we didn’t have the pace and lost some places towards the end on older tyres.

“I managed to get a good launch off the line and made up places through the opening sequence of corners. We were running quite well in the midfield pack on the softs at the time, and knowing how difficult it is to overtake at this track, we pitted early, trying to undercut and use track position to make up places.

“We tried our best to manage the tyres, but with a lot of degradation and having to also move offline for blue flags, it made it difficult to hold off the cars on fresher tyres in the closing laps.

“It was not what we wanted, but we just have to keep pushing, and better results will come.”