Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen has given his take on whether Franco Colapinto is currently doing enough to secure his future at the team, with the Argentinian’s contract set to expire at the end of the year.
After a nine-race stint with Williams in 2024, Colapinto returned to the grid with Alpine in the early stages of last season to replace Jack Doohan. While there were some ups and downs along the way – with Colapinto failing to score a point in what was a challenging campaign for the squad – the 23-year-old was retained for 2026.
The Enstone-based outfit have enjoyed a much more positive run so far this season, currently sitting fifth in the Teams’ Championship on 60 points – and while 42 of those have been scored by Pierre Gasly, Colapinto is responsible for 18 after claiming points on five occasions.
Speaking during the British Grand Prix weekend, Nielsen was quizzed on whether Colapinto has shown enough to prove that he deserves to stay with Alpine into 2027, with Gasly already locked in as part of a multi-year deal.
“Well, everybody wants more,” Nielsen responded. “I think Franco is a driver that has been a slow starter, dare I say it. He’s getting better. He’s produced some good runs this year already. Miami was good. China was good. He’s improving.
“So I think he’s there on merit and when the time comes, we’ll make the decisions. If he’s good enough, he’ll stay, and if he’s not, then there’s a better option. That’s just Formula 1.”
Nielsen went on to assess the areas in which Colapinto has particularly improved, including how he is able to be more on a par with Gasly this season.
“I think his consistency, particularly in races, is a lot better than it was and his ability to hang on to Pierre,” Nielsen explained.
“He did a little bit of that last year, but our car last year was so bad it was difficult to separate wheat from the chaff. But I think this year there’s been a few times where he’s been a match for Pierre and that’s good to see.”
In terms of the team’s prospects for the rest of the season, Nielsen acknowledged that they cannot be complacent when it comes to holding P5 in the standings, with Racing Bulls rapidly closing in and bringing the gap down to just one point after Silverstone.
“We’re not even halfway through [the season],” the Briton said prior to the race. “There’s no way we can relax. It only takes a small, sort of chaotic race – we’ve had some of those already – and if Racing Bulls are ahead of us, they can collect big.
“We’re a long way from relaxing and we’re in a development war with them, with Racing Bulls. And I keep hearing stories that some of the other teams – Aston Martin, Williams – are also bringing big upgrades, so we’ll see. There’s an awful long way to go and we’re not taking anything for granted.”