The Argentine seems to have everything arranged to secure his seat at Alpine for 2027. Briatore advanced that the decision will come before the summer break. Colapinto has matched Gasly's performance and received the team's backing after his accident in FP2 in Hungary.
Franco Colapinto is on track to secure his continuity at Alpine for the 2027 season. The Argentine has shown consistent performance throughout the season and the signals from the Enstone management are increasingly positive, Flavio Briatore had already advanced that the decision on the second seat would be taken before the summer break and everything indicates that the Argentine's continuity is agreed to a high percentage. Official confirmation could come after the Dutch Grand Prix.
The weeks of rumors that cast doubt on Colapinto's continuity are behind us, the silence has transformed into nods between the lines and public words of support. The Argentine's accident in the first minutes of FP2 in Hungary could have opened the door to speculation, but Briatore came out to cross any attempt before it could exist and forcefully backed the Buenos Aires driver.
Colapinto responded on track with a qualifying session identical to that of his teammate Pierre Gasly, a driver with seven more years of experience and almost a decade in Formula 1. In each of the four qualifying runs, both set identical times, proving that the Argentine is up to his experienced teammate.
Steve Nielsen, the team's sporting director, could not hide his admiration: "Both Pierre and Franco have been working hard with the engineers to find more lap time, which we did from Friday to Saturday and we hope to be more competitive in tomorrow's race. Congratulations to both drivers as they are giving their maximum effort" he declared.
Briatore has known how to read between the lines and deflect the questions that sought to destabilize the Argentine: "The driver makes the difference if you have someone like Max who can give you two or three tenths, but if you are seven or eight tenths away you don't have any driver that makes that difference, so let's work on the car" said the Italian.
The backing for Colapinto comes not only from his on-track performance but also from the support of his sponsors. Franco responds above the car with spectacular comebacks and times identical to Gasly's, but also below because his sponsors are firm. Even the main one of those firms does not doubt that he will be by his side until he is world champion.
The Enstone management cannot ignore that Franco is established in the team, working more and more in tune with mechanics and his engineer Stuart Barlow. He has also shown a level of driving on par with or even more adapted than Gasly's to the new rules, scoring points without bringing economic headaches for car damage.
After Hungary, Formula 1 will enter a slow hourglass towards the long awaited confirmation of Colapinto's future. The Argentine will star in the Pirelli tire tests for 2027 at the Nürburgring immediately after his time at the Hungaroring and will then take a few days of rest, but will immediately resume training, without vacations and focused on collaborating with the setup of the promised upgrades that Alpine will bring to Zandvoort.
