Alpine’s Flavio Briatore has hit out at the “bulls**t” said about Franco Colapinto, pointing the finger at his home nation of Argentina.

Faced with “rumours” over Colapinto’s relationship and future with Alpine, Briatore launched a stern reaction, revealing that the Alpine engineers are “very happy” and a breakthrough was achieved with Colapinto as he impressed at the Canadian Grand Prix.

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Colapinto stepped up from Alpine reserve to race driver in time for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, round seven of the F1 2025 campaign, on an initial five-race deal.

Next weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix will mark the final race of Colapinto’s initial contract with his performance set to be reviewed ahead of the British GP next month.

Colapinto, like his predecessor Doohan, is yet to put a point on the board in F1 2025, fuelling speculation over what Alpine’s next move could be.

The “rumours” around Colapinto were put to Alpine executive advisor and de facto team principal Flavio Briatore by Argentine publication La Voz del Interior, to which he issued a blunt pushback, calling out what he sees as “bulls**t” created around the 22-year-old by his home nation.

“I don’t think there are any rumours. The team is fine with Franco and that’s it,” said Briatore.

“Franco is part of the team, I don’t know what rumours they are talking about.

“The problem is that the press publishes a lot of rubbish. It’s your fault, not ours.

“All these things come from Argentina and the people there. You should blame yourselves.

“You are the ones who put up so much bullsh*t, that Franco this and Franco that; it’s up to you. In fact, if you go on like this, it’s not good for Franco either. You have to support Franco, not pressure him, if you are professionals and want to take care of him.”

Put to him that these rumours do the rounds on social media as well as in the press, Briatore added: “Social networks are full of idiots.

“But you, who have a Formula 1 driver, have to protect your driver because he is a young guy, because he is in a team.

“It’s not easy at the beginning, it’s not easy for anyone and, little by little, he starts to believe in the car, he starts to have more confidence in the car.”

At that point, Briatore lifted the lid on recent efforts to get Colapinto up to speed, the Argentine having struggled to replicate the kind of form which saw him turn heads with Williams last season as he stepped up from Formula 2.

And Canada brought the rewards as Colapinto comfortably outqualified team-mate Pierre Gasly and finished the race two positions up the road in P13.

“The engineers are very happy and they spent a lot of time in England with a lot of hours in the simulator, we changed the seat, we changed the brake pedals, we changed a lot,” Briatore revealed on Colapinto, “and today, finally, we have the results.”

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Grid penalties for Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda meant Colapinto rose to P10 on the grid in Canada, so despite having the beating of Gasly during the race weekend, Colapinto was left disappointed with a drop of three positions come the chequered flag.

The race would finish behind the Safety Car after Lando Norris collided with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri and eliminated himself in the closing stages.

“Maybe not what we were expecting,” he reflected on his race when speaking afterwards. “It was a tough day I think, out there.

“We were in a decent place to have the opportunity of scoring some points. I think just the wrong strategy for what happened later in the race. We need to understand, but I think we just got a bit unlucky today with the strategy. Everyone stayed out trying to help their team-mates, and they kept backing us up.

“When you’re in the dirty air, very tricky to overtake with our lack of power in the straights. Just a tough day. I think we kind of thought we were going to be fighting for the points. And I thought too. But then when everyone kept running in clean air, and we were just in dirty air behind slow cars, it just became really, really tricky.”

Asked if he is though starting to better understand the Alpine A525, Colapinto confirmed: “I think yes.

“This one is a very tough track. It’s not an easy one.

“And I think generally, I felt more comfortable with the car. We’ve done some positive changes, and I’ve been feeling better over the weekend our laps.

“We need to keep working, but I think it’s a good start to the progression.”

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