Alpine has confirmed what everyone suspected the moment Max Verstappen re-signed with Red Bull: Franco Colapinto isn’t going anywhere in 2027. The Argentine keeps his seat alongside Pierre Gasly, and Flavio Briatore is dressing it up as a triumph of consistency rather than what it really is, a team with no better options left.
The Verstappen Fantasy Is Officially Dead
Let’s not pretend this decision was ever really about Colapinto’s driving. Back in May, Briatore openly admitted he wanted to keep Alpine’s 2027 line-up flexible in case one of the Mercedes seats freed up and a certain four-time world champion fancied a wander down the paddock to Enstone. That fantasy evaporated the moment Max Verstappen put pen to paper on a new Red Bull deal ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, as covered in our piece on Verstappen’s Zandvoort farewell message. Once that door slammed shut, Alpine’s second seat was always going to Colapinto by default. Briatore just waited until it looked like a considered decision rather than a fallback plan.
The Numbers Behind the Narrative
To be fair to Colapinto, he has actually earned this on merit, not just by elimination. A seventh-place finish in Miami and a career-best sixth in Canada were the highlights of a season that has otherwise been a grind. He currently sits 12th in the drivers’ championship on 19 points, some way behind Gasly’s 44, but this remains his first full season in Formula 1 after a rocky introduction with Williams in 2024 and a scoreless run replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine in 2025, a year the team openly wrote off to focus on this year’s regulations reset.
What’s less flattering is the context around those results. Alpine was the midfield benchmark at the start of 2026, only to fade badly as Racing Bulls and Audi found more performance and sailed past them in the constructors’ standings. Alpine now sits sixth with 63 points, with Racing Bulls ahead on 66. Scoring points at three of six grands prix before the summer break sounds decent until you remember the car underneath Colapinto has been going backwards relative to its rivals.
Gasly Gets the Toys, Colapinto Gets the Leftovers
There’s also an uncomfortable detail buried in the fine print: Gasly received Alpine’s significant upgrade package at Zandvoort, while Colapinto has to wait until the Italian Grand Prix to get his hands on the same parts. That’s not a minor scheduling quirk, it’s a pecking order. Gasly is locked in until 2028 on a deal signed last September and remains the only driver outside F1’s big four teams to have scored a podium this year. Colapinto, by contrast, is understood to have signed only a single-year extension. Read between the lines and this isn’t quite the vote of full confidence Briatore’s press release wants you to believe.
Briatore’s Version of Events
Naturally, the official messaging is all sunshine. Briatore called Colapinto’s growth “a great driver” story, pointing to Miami and Montreal as proof the Argentine “belongs in Formula 1, and belongs at this team.” He also stressed that consistency matters more than chasing star names, which is a curious thing to say for a man who spent months keeping the door ajar for Verstappen.
“I am very pleased to remain with this team in 2027. I feel very happy and very settled here, and it’s been even better that we have made significant progress this year compared to last.” – Franco Colapinto
Colapinto himself, speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at the Dutch Grand Prix, was refreshingly honest about where he’s at, admitting he’s “still, of course, needing to work in a lot of areas like every driver” rather than pretending he’s the finished article. That kind of self-awareness is rare in a paddock built on spin, and it’s arguably more convincing than anything in Briatore’s statement.
A Sensible Call Dressed Up as a Bold One
None of this is to say Colapinto doesn’t deserve another year. Six points finishes from twelve races in a car sliding down the order isn’t nothing, and plenty of drivers have kept seats on far less. But let’s not mistake this for Alpine backing a rising star out of conviction. This is a team that ran out of alternatives, watched its championship rival poach the one man who could have upgraded their line-up overnight, and settled for the safe, cheap, already-there option. Briatore calls it consistency. Everyone else might just call it Plan B.
Whether Colapinto can actually close the gap to Gasly next year, or whether Alpine’s declining form makes the whole conversation academic, is the real story for 2027. For now, Enstone gets to enjoy a rare moment of stability while the car around its drivers keeps getting outdeveloped by teams that used to be behind them.
