Franco Colapinto told the ‘strange’ task he has to complete to secure his ‘long-term’ F1 future at Alpine

For the second time in less than 12 months, Franco Colapinto will be making his debut for a Formula 1 team on the grid.

After stepping up at Williams at Monza in place of Logan Sargeant, Franco Colapinto is making his Alpine bow in Italy once again, this time at Imola.

Colapinto will have fond memories of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix having won at the track in both Formula 3 and Formula 2.

However, the demands on the young Argentine are very different to last season.

Colapinto has a huge following in Argentina, but that brings an additional level of pressure for the 21-year-old to deal with.

He knew there wasn’t an immediate future for him at Williams, but Alpine have only handed him a five-race deal to begin with.

Jack Doohan could force Alpine to switch their drivers again should he not reach certain expectations, while Paul Aron is also pushing to make his F1 debut.

Journalist Lawrence Barretto has provided an indication of what Colapinto needs to do to secure a ‘long-term’ future with Alpine beyond the next five race weekends.

READ MORE: Who is Alpine 2025 F1 driver Franco Colapinto? Everything you need to know

Franco Colapinto told what he must do to secure his ‘long-term’ Alpine future

Barretto was asked on the F1 Nation Podcast what Colapinto needs to do to have a ‘long-term’ future at Alpine beyond his five-race contract and explained, “No, I don’t think so, which I know might sound strange.

“But I think to have a long-term future there, I think he’s just got to score and he’s got to be up there with Pierre because ultimately they just want two cars scoring in what they’re describing as this transitional year before they move to the Mercedes power units next year.

“I think that with that back in, so long as he can deliver some peak performances like we’ve already seen is possible, they’ll probably outweigh the bad weekends where like in Brazil last year, he crashed twice in Vegas and ramps up the damage bill.

“I think it probably will all work out, well, so long as he has enough of those peak weekends.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Alpine prepared to make Imola sacrifice on Franco Colapinto’s F1 return

Colapinto proved during his first spell with Williams that he’s prepared to push a car to its limits very quickly.

He could have taken his time to ease into last season knowing there was very little chance of earning a race seat in 2025, that Alpine have put a deadline on when he needs to perform, and being a few tenths away from Pierre Gasly may not be enough.

Doohan’s problem was not hooking up a complete race weekend, meaning he never threatened to score points, although Gasly has only earned one top-10 finish this season, highlighting where Alpine are currently in the pecking order.

Gasly believes Alpine are going to make sacrifices at Imola, which may harm Colapinto on his second debut.

Colapinto’s crashes towards the end of last season put Red Bull off signing him, and if he begins to cost Alpine money by making unnecessary mistakes then Briatore won’t hesitate to dip into Alpine’s driver pool once again.