FLAVIO BRIATORE SLAMMED FOR HIS 'UNNECESSARY' STATEMENT ABOUT FRANCO COLAPINTO'S FUTURE AT ALPINE

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Alpine executive adviser Flavio Briatore has raised some eyebrows with his latest comments about Franco Colapinto’s future, as the Argentine fights for his F1 seat.

Uncertainty continues to hang over Colapinto, with the 22-year-old still only in possession of a race-by-race contract to drive for Alpine in the 2025 F1 season. He initially got a five-race deal to replace Jack Doohan this May, but Briatore has so far opted to keep him in the A525.

Sources have told F1 Oversteer that Alpine have shocked a lot of the F1 paddock by keeping Colapinto in the A525 for so long. Many expected Briatore to reverse his decision and allow Doohan to get back in the car. Yet the Australian has had to settle for a seat on the sidelines.

Colapinto has largely failed to prove himself as an upgrade on Doohan, who Briatore canned after the first six rounds of the season. Alpine are still waiting to see Colapinto score his first point, with the Buenos Aires native’s average Grand Prix finish so far P15.2 from nine results.

Flavio Briatore criticised for narrowing Alpine’s 2026 shortlist down to Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron

It has been said that Briatore has studied the F1 driver market to find a potential alternative teammate for Pierre Gasly for 2026. Alpine have spoken with Zhou Guanyu about a possible return to F1. It is thought that Alpine hold an interest in McLaren junior Alex Dunne, as well.

But Briatore has now told The Race that Alpine will decide between retaining Colapinto next year or promoting their other reserve driver, Paul Aron, into a 2026 race seat. Briatore does not see “any other possibility” for Alpine’s 2026 F1 driver line-up among their other options.

Briatore’s public declaration that Colapinto or Aron will be Gasly’s teammate at Alpine next year has frustrated Tiff Needell. The ex-F1 driver believes there are “at least” four stronger candidates for the 2026 Alpine seat on the current Formula 2 grid than Colapinto and Aron.

He noted on X after Briatore’s claim: “So unnecessary to make such statements! There are at least four drivers on the F2 grid I’d put ahead of these two. But this is the Briatore way…”

What has Flavio Briatore said about Alpine’s 2026 F1 driver line-up plans?

It had already emerged that Aron is the most likely candidate to replace Colapinto if Briatore decides to rotate Alpine’s line-up again before the end of the 2025 season. But it is also now between the pair to fight over the final seat in Alpine’s driver line-up for the 2026 F1 season.

Juan Pablo Montoya doubts Aron is “the answer” for Alpine, should Briatore give the seat to the Estonian next year. Montoya wants to see Briatore sign a driver who can really challenge or even beat Gasly with equal machinery, but he questions whether Aron would be able to.

Aron has spent 2025 on the sidelines as Alpine’s reserve driver, while making FP1 outings for Sauber in Britain and Hungary plus for Alpine at Monza. The 2024 third-place F2 finisher has also impressed Briatore, who only needs “one or two” more races to decide Alpine’s line-up.

“It’s between Franco and Paul,” Briatore told The Race. “Paul is a very nice guy [and] a very quick driver, as well. And I need to understand what is best for the team, you know?”

He added: “My only interest is to try to take in the team the best driver available and do the best job with us. It is as simple as that. I need another one or two races to see. But honestly, today I don’t know [which one].”

- Kyle Archer

WHAT'S GOING ON F1 2025'S FORGOTTEN DRIVER

This Formula 1 season has produced a short-lived grand prix career that had more flashes of promise than people will remember - assuming Jack Doohan is remembered at all, since he has rapidly become the forgotten man of Formula 1 2025.

In another world, Doohan is racing in the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend. And it doesn't even need to be a world in which Alpine never dropped him, as Doohan could conceivably have got his seat back as quickly as he lost it.

When Alpine subbed in Franco Colapinto for a five-race evaluation, that description was quickly revised by team boss Flavio Briatore, which was a hint that Colapinto was probably around for the long haul. But Doohan kept his head down and worked on the basis that he would be back in the car at the British GP if Colapinto did not perform.

But come the most recent round at Silverstone, Doohan remained on the sidelines. And Colapinto appears to have been given an indefinite incumbency - assisted at least in part by the arrival of a Latin American sponsor, Claro, which is part of the Carlos Slim empire - despite the poor form that left Doohan expecting to get his seat back.

Comparing the two six-event stints of Doohan and Colapinto is an underwhelming exercise. They have similarly disappointing results, although Doohan has had stronger flashes.

At his point of elimination in qualifying, Doohan's average position (not including grid penalties for others) was 15.5, his peak was 11th in Bahrain, his average deficit to Gasly was 0.36 seconds and he outqualified him once, in Miami.

Colapinto's average qualifying position is 16.7, with an average deficit of 0.3s, a best qualifying performance of 12th in Canada, where he outqualified Gasly for the only time so far in a result that also became 10th on the grid after penalties.

Directly comparing how they performed versus Gasly in every qualifying segment favours Doohan slightly, as his deficit drops to 0.26s while Colapinto's is reduced to 0.31s. The two are clearly very close in any qualifying analysis, plus have shared similar experiences of unreasonable expectations and a threat of being dropped.

But Doohan's overall pace showed a threat to Gasly that Colapinto has struggled to replicate. And while this is not an argument that Colapinto has been terrible, or a big downgrade on Doohan, you can imagine why Doohan would feel very hard done by that he has lost his F1 seat - and potentially any chance of an F1 future - for a change that has achieved nothing.

It leaves Doohan with a tiny and underwhelming legacy.

Barring a new driver arriving somewhere and failing to finish a race higher than 13th, Doohan will finish last in the championship; Colapinto's two 13th-place finishes have him technically ahead even though neither have scored a point, the two only drivers who have failed to do so in 2025.

It is a poor record, and being quite so bad is undeserved. Doohan's Alpine stint featured more potential than the results suggest.

Thrown into a difficult situation at Alpine, driving a car that was tricky to handle and under the watch of team management that undermined him and his successor Colapinto, Doohan had the odds stacked against him from the start.

Despite the lack of points, Doohan impressed with flashes of raw speed - especially after a set-up change after testing helped tailor the Alpine more to his liking for the start of the season - and a strong work ethic.

But his campaign was hampered by mistakes: a first-lap crash in Australia, a practice crash on his second flying lap in Japan after failing to close DRS manually because he had not needed to in the simulator, and a race-ending incident in Miami that came after a strong qualifying performance.

These moments, along with other unnecessary penalties in China (forcing Isack Hadjar off track, 10 seconds) and Bahrain (leaving the track without a justifiable reason multiple times, five seconds), disrupted any momentum he might have been able to build.

Still, within the context of his situation - limited preparation, high-pressure expectations, and a car that wasn't up to standard - Doohan performed better than he was given credit for. While he may now be seen as a footnote in Alpine's turbulent 2025 season, he had the raw ingredients of a capable F1 driver.

Had Alpine committed longer-term, the trajectory suggested there was more to come. Instead, Doohan has become one of the forgotten men of 2025.

The question is whether there will be a second chance.

Even Red Bull, the only team who has treated a driver as badly or worse than Alpine has this year, tends to keep their rejected options in a race seat somewhere. Liam Lawson at least ended up back at Racing Bulls, for example, after being dropped following two races at Red Bull at the start of the year.

Assuming there is no route back in at Alpine - which looks to be the case while Briatore is there - then Doohan's best chance might be to crowbar his way in at Cadillac, which is weighing up going for the most experienced and successful free agents (Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez) or pairing one of them with a younger driver.

Cadillac's known to be wary of taking on a rookie but, with seven grands prix starts plus two sprint races under his belt, Doohan's potentially got an edge on some of the other candidates thought to be in the mix. And there have at least been some informal talks.

What Doohan's counting on for any team minded to roll the dice and give him a second chance - wherever or whenever that could be - is for someone to pay close enough attention to his work at Alpine to look past the results.

While they were not bad enough to deserve being dropped in the first place, they are also too middling and too few to command a place elsewhere.

That is the unfortunate and unfair reality that the most harshly treated driver of F1 2025 has been left in.

- Scott Mitchell-Malm

JACK DOOHAN SENDS DEFIANT 'LAST RACE' MESSAGE IN FACE OF INTENSE F1 PRESSURE

© XPBimages

Jack Doohan is tuning out the noise ahead of his first home grand prix, which he is adamant will not be his last in F1.

Jack Doohan insists he will "enjoy" every grand prix he races this season as if it is his last in F1.

The embattled Alpine driver has endured near-constant speculation over his future during the winter break after the French team signed a quadrant of test and reserve drivers, headlined by prising Franco Colapinto away from Williams on a multi-year deal.

Team Enstone had to pay a significant sum to free the Argentine from his contract at the Grove-based squad and his arrival has further heaped pressure on Doohan - and fed into the persistent but unfounded rumour the 22-year-old has only a matter of rounds to prove himself to Flavio Briatore and team principal Oliver Oakes.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365 ahead of his home grand prix in Melbourne, Doohan indirectly debunked that myth.

"Great question," the Australian joked to a chorus of laughter when asked how he feels about the extra pressure and the prospect of the current trip to Albert Park being his only home race in F1.

"To be honest... I haven't been thinking about any of that because, as you all know, there’s no point thinking about rumours or commenting on them.

"But I have a contract for at least this year, if not more. So, I look forward to many home grands prix."

Doohan: 'All four reserves want my seat'

Despite Alpine stacking its bench with alternatives, Doohan maintains the four drivers behind him and team-mate Pierre Gasly do not move the needle.

He is adamant that he must perform - and enjoy himself - each and every time he gets into the car, something that would be the case without the presence of Paul Aron, Ryo Hirakawa and Kush Maini as well.

"And the uncertainties? You don't bother worrying about them," Doohan explained. "I think I have to perform each and every time I'm in the car. I have one guy chasing my seat, but we actually have four [reserve and test drivers] now, if you didn't realise.

"We have four reserves, you have all four of them, not just Franco, probably wants my seat and if not, Pierre’s as well.

while I was reserve driver the last two years. So I'm going to enjoy every race as if it's my last, because I want to enjoy each and every moment I'm in the car.

"But, yeah, to be honest, not much more to add on that."

- Samuel Coop

YOUNGEST DRIVERS | 2025 F1 SEASON

 

BREAKING: JACK.DOOHAN TO RACE FOR ALPINE