What Paul Aron has done behind the scenes that has left Alpine staff ‘genuinely impressed’ after Franco Colapinto’s promotion

Alpine have been at the centre of the Formula 1 world since the Miami Grand Prix after announcing two huge changes.

Oliver Oakes resigned from his position as team principal at Alpine with Flavio Briatore taking charge.

Then, just a few hours later, Franco Colapinto was confirmed as Jack Doohan’s replacement for the next five races.

Colapinto was signed from Williams over the winter break as a reserve driver to provide backup for Doohan after his surprise F1 debut in Abu Dhabi last year.

Alpine are set to benefit financially from Colapinto’s promotion but ultimately, the Australian’s performances weren’t good enough to convince Briatore that they could go without the 21-year-old’s sponsorship deals.

The reasoning behind Alpine’s decision to hand the Argentine a short-term contract is to analyse their driver line-up ahead of 2026.

If they’re going to do that properly, then another reserve driver, Paul Aron, might need to be considered this season as well.

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

Alpine left ‘genuinely impressed’ by Paul Aron’s private testing pace

Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast in the aftermath of Alpine’s turbulent post-Miami Grand Prix week.

Explaining the driver situation at Alpine, Mitchell-Malm said, “The way that it happens previously with teams like Red Bull is the driver does get a second chance in F1 normally, but that’s back at the second team or it’s a chance to get on the grid somewhere else.

“And my worry for Jack is I don’t see that route. I think it would be a big surprise if Alpine put him back in before the end of this season, for example, because even if Franco doesn’t deliver, if they really want to do an objective complete assessment for next year, they’ve got to put Paul Aron in the car, haven’t they?

“Their other reserve driver and he’s been really quick in private testing, apparently.

“So if you really want to make your informed decision on 2026, you’ve got to get some Grand Prix data from the other driver, who’s presumably an option.”

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

Why Paul Aron might not benefit from Alpine’s Formula 1 driver merry-go-round

Paul Aron has had an impressive junior career, finishing third in FRECA in back-to-back seasons before making the step up to Formula 3.

He only spent one year at that level, finishing third again, and in his rookie Formula 2 campaign last year he matched that result.

Aron is extremely highly rated within Alpine and has arguably had a stronger junior career than both Doohan and Colapinto.

Mitchell-Malm continued to discuss Alpine’s potential driver rotation and where Aron might fit into it and said, “I think it’s tricky to know where someone like Aron fits into the pecking order now that Oakes has gone because Aron was a Hitech driver in junior categories.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that he joined the fold after Oakes became team principal.

“I believe he has genuinely impressed other people within Alpine in his private testing work.

“But I don’t know where he fits into Briatore’s plans. If ultimately Flavio and Alpine really are only interested in performance, then Aron should be as big a threat to Colapinto as Colapinto was to Doohan.

“It should just be as straightforward as that. But I just don’t know, I don’t know if that’s the case.”

Doohan seems unlikely to return to Alpine’s F1 race seat even though the team have theoretically left the door open for him.

That means that if Colapinto doesn’t match the performances he put in at Williams last season, Aron might get his chance.