Alpine to give Colapinto ‘all the support he needs’ to deliver in F1

Franco Colapinto endured a tough season with Alpine in 2025, but inside Enstone the message heading into 2026 is sharp, direct and unmistakably clear: the young Argentine will be backed – and given time –to prove he belongs among motorsport’s elite.

Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen has drawn a firm line under the turbulence of the past year, insisting the team’s focus is now on stability, patience and unlocking the potential it believes still burns within Colapinto as he prepares for his first full Formula 1 campaign.

The 22-year-old’s path to a permanent F1 seat has been anything but straightforward. His mid-season debut with Williams in 2024 showcased raw speed and fearlessness, while his partial 2025 campaign at Alpine unfolded against the backdrop of a car sliding backwards relative to the field.

The Journey of a Young Driver

Nielsen views the upcoming season as the true test of the Argentine’s development, emphasizing that the peaks and valleys of a debut year are a standard part of the Formula 1 learning curve.

“Franco is a young driver. We’ve seen other young drivers go through good and difficult periods – he’s on that journey,” Nielsen stated last month in Abu Dhabi.

Refusing to let the 2025 scoreboard mask the raw speed shown in the cockpit, Nielsen noted that the internal data tells a more promising story.

“There were races earlier in the year when he was a match for Pierre, and on a couple of occasions maybe even faster than Pierre in the races,” Nielsen added.

“He’s on that journey, and we’ll give him all the support he needs to be as quick as he can be, whether that’s faster than Pierre or close to Pierre.”

A Call for Stability and Better Machinery

For Alpine to climb out of the basement of the Constructors' Championship, the team knows it can no longer rely on a single car to carry the weight of the organization.

With a full pre-season testing schedule ahead, the goal is to transform Colapinto’s flashes of speed into a consistent championship presence.

“The important thing for us is to have two drivers scoring in the championship,” Nielsen explained.

“We’ve suffered a bit this year: only one car scored points, and not enough with that one either, while the other car scored zero points with two different drivers in it.

“We need stability in the second car, and we need to give time for that talent to mature and deliver points for us. You need two drivers.”

Ultimately, Nielsen shifted the pressure from the drivers to the factory floor. He was pointed in his assessment of why the 2025 campaign stalled, acknowledging that the machinery simply didn't match the caliber of the men behind the wheel.

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“I think the brutal reality is that our car was not fast enough to score points,” he conceded. “I think both drivers we have now are better than the car.

“On the few occasions when the car has been good enough to fight around the points, we had one in Brazil, where Pierre qualified reasonably well and raced reasonably well, and another in Vegas where we were okay.”

As the 2026 era begins, the mandate for Alpine is clear: provide the car, and the drivers will provide the results.

“When the car is good, both drivers are more than capable of delivering what the car allows,” Nielsen said. “We need to make a much better car, a much better car, and then we’ll see if the drivers are capable of going with it.”

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