Following months of speculation, Franco Colapinto is finally back on the grid.
Alpine made the switch to the 2024 super-sub following the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, sidelining Jack Doohan and promoting Colapinto, who signed as a reserve driver with the team ahead of the 2025 season. Colapinto makes his Alpine debut this week at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and has just five races to prove to Flavio Briatore and the decision makers at the Enstone-based operation that he has what it takes.
Colapinto is aiming to “improve the performance” in those five races.
“I think as a driver, I’m just trying to go step by step,” said Colapinto in the FIA Press Conference on Thursday. “I don’t really know the car, so a lot of new things coming and I just want to do the basics right and then the results are going to come. I’m not really expecting any kind of result. The performance of the teams is so tight and it changes from track to track.
“At the end, in FP1 and FP2 we don’t really have a clear view of where we are at. We’re still working a lot with the team. The main goal is to make the car quicker as well. We need to find a lot of performance, and I think that’s going to come with a lot of work from everyone. So that’s the main goal – to try and improve the performance and then of course, after these five races, we’ll see.”
Colapinto made a surprising debut on the grid last year, stepping in at Williams after the team parted ways with Logan Sargeant. The young driver finished 12th in his first race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but brought home points at the following race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
He finished in the points twice last year with Williams, with the P8 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and a P10 at the United States Grand Prix.
The driver contrasted the excitement of his debut in 2024, with the much more “relaxed” atmosphere of the current moment.
“I don’t really think it’s such a new thing. I’m much more relaxed. I’ve had the experience of racing, I’ve had the experience of being in a race weekend with a different team,” said Colapinto. “I still have that feeling — I’ve been racing in December, so it’s not that far away. It doesn’t feel the same as Monza. Monza was massive excitement, everything was new, it was the first time I was going to be part of a Formula 1 grid.
“Here it feels a bit different. It’s still my dream come true— so the feelings are the same — but now I want to work with the team. It’s not only about the dream of becoming an F1 driver, it’s about working towards the team’s goals,” added Colapinto. “Getting good results, being consistent in the points — that’s what we want to achieve. So yeah, let’s focus on the job and see what we can do.”
Asked if there was any extra pressure on Colapinto this time around, knowing that he has just five races to prove himself and with a potential full-time spot on the grid on the line, the young driver noted he “just can’t wait to jump in the car.”
“Last year everything was new and it was very tricky to take in all the information. I think now I’m only six races behind everyone that has been racing already—evolution-wise, tire-related, I just don’t have the knowledge of those first six races,” said Colapinto. “But I’m much closer than last year. Last year I had zero experience. I hadn’t had any testing. I just had 300 [kilometers] of running in an F1 car before I drove in Monza. It was much trickier. I think I felt more pressure there, just because everything was new.
“This year, just having that extra experience, having that knowledge of having already raced in Formula 1 is going to help me a bit. So yeah, hopefully it does. Yeah, just can’t wait to jump in the car.”
Colapinto jumps in the car later today for FP1, the first of three practice sessions ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.