Franco Colapinto will be joining Alpine for the 2025 season after being released from his Williams contract early.
Many F1 fans think this puts Jack Doohan’s seat under pressure, given the Australian had a lacklustre debut at Abu Dhabi last season.
Although Colapinto’s six races ended in three DNF’s at Williams, he still impressed Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore by scoring points in Azerbaijan and US.
The deal means Doohan must achieve good results to keep his seat, with Colapinto’s manager Maria Catarineu confirming that it will be a five-year agreement with Alpine in an interview with Infobae.
Catarineu also confirmed what role Colapinto will play amid the heavy restrictions on testing current-spec cars in F1.
Franco Colapinto’s manager confirms his role at Alpine amid testing restrictions
The Argentine has been appointed as their test and reserve driver for the 2025 season along with Ryo Hirakawa and Paul Aron, although Colapinto will be the first pick if needed to replace Pierre Gasly or Doohan.
Teams are allowed to run their test and reserve drivers in FP1 sessions if they qualify under the rookie rules, however, because Colapinto has already contested more than two Grands Prix he will no qualify.
Instead Alpine will run him as part of their allocated milage for the Testing of Previous Cars according to Catarineu.
“Franco cannot do FP1 [anymore] because he is no longer a rookie. He will do tests on cars from two seasons ago. He will have to be at the races,” saidCatarineu.
Alpine has paid more than £8 million for Franco Colapinto according to rumours
Red Bull had been interested in signing Colapinto in the early stages, with the team considering him as an ideal driver at Racing Bulls if Sergio Perez left at the end of the season.
Red Bull had offered £15.4 million for Colapinto, which is what Williams initially asked for, given he was seen as lucrative with his sponsors and fan attention.
But after multiple costly crashes for Williams, Racing Bulls pulled out of any interest in Colapinto. This enabled Alpine to swoop in with a deal.
Rumours now state that Alpine paid around £8.4 million to release Colapinto from his Williams contract, which was due to end in 2026 anyway.
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