Alpine is rated F1 2026 options in its “X Factor” style audition following Brutal Driver Swap.
The team confirmed Wednesday morning that Franco Colapinto will drive towards the next five Grand Prixes in place of Jack Doohan, who competed in the first six races of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Colapinto will win an impressive five rounds alongside Pierre Gasly in a decision that has been made with an eye on the future of 2026 and looming regulatory changes.
It compared it to the British Reality Television Music Competition “The X Factor,” which analyzed the latest developments at Enstone, according to Sky Sports F1 reporter Craig Slater.
“I think Alpine has a good package for next season. They have Mercedes engines. Their chassis is already very good. They have a good person behind the scenes,” Skyter told Sky Sports News.
“They may be one of the team’s quartets that could potentially compete for the championship next year. Even some people have linked Max Verstappen with a potential move towards Alpine, which seems to be a bold one at the moment.
“They have Pierre Guthrie, who they believe in. They’ve seen Jacques Douhan, Franco Colapinto, they gave four tests in historic cars along with Paul Aron, a young Estonian who is already in their book.
“They want to rate the best driver pairings of 2026. Maybe at the end of these five races, they might oppose Korapinto. Maybe they’ll give Aron a run on the team?
“I don’t think that’s unlikely. I think Corapinto is fine, but I think he’ll stay for the rest of the year, but that’s the idea that this is a bit of a driver X factor, a bit of a competition, and a comparison between them to see his partner Guthrie next season.”
How much did finance play?
Colapinto’s important financial support is believed to have influenced Alpine’s decision.
“The financial incentive behind Colapinto makes him an attractive outlook if all other factors are equal,” Slater explained.
“It’s a tough world. It’s a cruel world, but it’s a cruel world, and ultimately Flavio Briatore is a tough guy who makes tough decisions, and this is so much from his playbook.
“Maybe it is the biggest single factor in why Corapinto is in the car now, and that is the financial impulse of all this.
“My info is that Alpine paid 4.5 million euros to win Corapinto on a loan agreement from Williams. He will have to return to Williams within five years. But he brings up to 20 million euros of money per season, but he will have to get in the car.”
Colapinto’s promotion was confirmed just 12 hours after the announcement of the shocking departure from Alpine for Team Principal Oliver Oakes.
When asked if the two developments were linked, Slater replied.
“The factory was only discovered about Oliver Oaks last night. Yesterday they were informed that there was 2-bit news and that so far no reason has been given as to why Oliver Oaks is leaving as principal of the team.
“I don’t think he was against the fact that in the principal they were going to switch between Doohan and Korapinto, but he probably opposed the timing.
“In his own mind, “Am I the principal of the team, or are there any big executive decisions that Briator actually takes place? Isn’t this job sold to me when I took it?”
“But maybe there are other aspects behind the scenes and we will only find them at a later point.
“With the fact and decisions being made that the Switch is coming, he may feel that Briartoll is the name of the name, whether he will be in the job forever, or that he is just asking for another kind of representative to run the factory while he is the public face of the team.
“There are people like Dave Greenwood of Alpine who can monitor the factory while he (Briatol) is doing politics.
“There’s no explanation as to why the Oaks went, but there may be a few other issues behind the scenes that encouraged that.”