Former Benetton team manager Joan Villadelprat has said Flavio Briatore’s success in signing Franco Colapinto as Alpine reserve driver is a sign of him wanting young talent “at any price”.

Alpine signed Colapinto as reserve driver from Williams ahead of the 2025 season, and PlanetF1.com understands ‘Team Enstone’, which formerly raced as Benetton, now holds his contractual rights for the next five years.

Franco Colapinto to Alpine: Briatore wants ‘new Alonso or Schumacher’ with best talent

The Argentine driver largely impressed in a nine-race stint with Williams last season, when he was promoted to replace Logan Sargeant, but with both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz contracted to race seats for the years to come, he looked elsewhere.

Colapinto has now signed for Alpine as reserve driver, backing up Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan for the 2025 season, with Williams team principal James Vowles enabling the move in what he said “represents Franco’s best chance of securing a race seat in 2025 or 2026.”

Villadelprat, who worked with Alpine special advisor Briatore at Benetton as operations director and team manager, explained he looked to sign Colapinto to look to attract the best young talent on the grid, in the same vein as he signed a young Michael Schumacher after his Formula 1 debut with Jordan, and brought Fernando Alonso to Renault after his debut with Minardi.

“He knows what he wants, he looks at young talent and wants it at any price, as he did with Schumacher,” Villadelprat said of Briatore’s ambition on the DuralaVita podcast, as quoted by Spanish publication Marca.

“He has that ambition. He was going to go for Colapinto because he’s looking for the new Alonso, the new Schumacher.”

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While Colapinto’s move has been seen as a switch that potentially puts pressure on young rookie driver Doohan, Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes was keen to stress he will receive time behind the wheel to impress.

With that, he emphasised Colapinto’s arrival is to give the “options” for the future rather than the here and now.

“It’s been a little bit harsh on Jack, some of the stuff that was written by the keyboard warriors there, and he’s getting his fair crack at it,” he told the James Allen on F1 podcast.

“And I think the intention there isn’t to put [pressure] on his shoulders. It’s genuinely to give the team options further down the line.

“And for me F1 is fine margins. There’s a load of people who are depending on a driver to deliver each weekend, and we need to make sure we’ve got the best drivers in the race car, not just now, but also in the future.”

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