Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Las Vegas Strip Circuit, 2025

Only one Formula 1 car failed to score a point all season this year: The second Alpine alongside Pierre Gasly.

When the team sacked Jack Doohan after just half-a-dozen races, they must have expected his replacement would add to their points haul before the season ended.

After all, Franco Colapinto managed to do just that when he was drafted into Williams mid-season last year. He gave a good account of himself in nine appearances alongside Alexander Albon and, however hard it seemed on Doohan, it’s not hard to see why Alpine would have wanted Colapinto even without his South American sponsors.

All of this happened against a backdrop of Alpine halting their 2025 development sooner than most teams to prioritise their work on 2026. Points were a remote prospect much of the time and Gasly did sterling work late in the season to realise what few opportunities presented themselves.

Colapinto took a little while to play himself in, prompting a public hurry-up from his team, but came out ahead on a few occasions. At times the pair only had each other to race against, such as in Baku where Gasly cunningly waited until Max Verstappen was lapping them to pass his team mate, and in Austin where Colapinto’s refusal to follow the team’s instructions left his team mate vulnerable.

A strong run of qualifying results after the summer break gave the clearest sign of Colapinto’s potential. Soon afterwards Alpine confirmed they had extended his contract.

However Colapinto never beat Gasly again from then on, with a single exception. This was in Losail, where Gasly ran in the points places before tangling with Nico Hulkenberg.

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After two part-seasons, next year Colapinto will have the chance to show what he can do across an entire campaign, with the benefit of pre-season testing. This should give a clearer picture of whether a driver who landed a surprise F1 debut last year can establish himself in the series for the long-term. But whether Alpine really improved their driving strength by dropping Doohan remains open to debate.

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Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Gasly was faster; Positive value: Colapinto was faster

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