Alpine have made their bet on the future – and they’ve doubled down on what’s already working.
Franco Colapinto will remain a Formula 1 race driver with the Enstone outfit next season, lining up alongside Pierre Gasly in an unchanged pairing for 2027. No reshuffle. No gamble. Just a clear statement that Alpine believe the duo already in the garage can carry them forward.
It’s a remarkable rise for the Argentine. Signed originally as a reserve for 2025, Colapinto was thrust into a race seat from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix as Jack Doohan’s replacement. He didn’t just fill the gap. He took it and ran.
Retained for this season, Colapinto has banked 19 points across six Grands Prix so far, a return that has helped haul Alpine to sixth in the Constructors’ standings. Those numbers don’t leap off the page like a title contender’s, but inside the team they matter: they speak to consistency, composure, and a driver who has adapted quickly to life at the sharp end of motorsport.
Just as importantly, he’s clicked with the man on the other side of the garage.
Gasly, tied to Alpine until at least the end of 2028, had long been expected to keep his seat. The real question was who would partner him. Over the past year, the answer has quietly written itself. Colapinto and Gasly have built a strong relationship on and off the track, a blend Alpine now believes is the right one to drag the team up the grid.
After internal discussions, the team moved to lock that in, describing the pairing as “the perfect match-up to drive the team forwards into the future”.
“We are very happy to confirm our driver line-up for 2027 with Franco staying as a race driver alongside Pierre,” Briatore said, underlining that while the drivers are an important piece, the “number one priority” remains designing and building a genuinely fast machine. The message was blunt: the line-up is sorted; now the factory has to deliver.
Briatore pointed to Colapinto’s performances in Miami and Montreal as turning points, the moments that confirmed what he “already knew” – that the 21-year-old belongs in Formula 1, and belongs at Alpine. From there, the extension felt less like a risk and more like a reward.
Colapinto, for his part, sounded like a man who knows he has earned his place and understands the scale of what comes next. He spoke of feeling “very happy and very settled” and highlighted the “significant progress” Alpine have made compared to last year. The targets are no secret: compete, then win. Not scrape points. Not just survive in the midfield. Break out of it.
He thanked the team, Briatore and Managing Director Steve Nielsen for their faith, but quickly steered the focus back to the job: keep improving, keep extracting more from the car, keep ticking off milestones on the way to the front.
The timing of the announcement is no accident.
The news lands on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix, where Colapinto will finally receive the upgraded package that Gasly debuted early at Zandvoort. Until now, the Frenchman has been the one carrying the latest spec; in Monza, both Alpine drivers will have the same tools in their hands.
That’s when a long-term commitment starts to look very real. Same drivers. Same upgrades. Same expectations.
Now comes the hard part: can this settled, carefully chosen partnership drag Alpine from the fringes of the midfield to the fight that really matters?
