Colapinto retained as Alpine lock in Gasly partnership for 2027

Argentine’s extension signals stability as Alpine target climb up the grid

Franco Colapinto will continue to race in Formula 1 with Alpine next season after the Enstone-based squad confirmed he will partner Pierre Gasly in an unchanged driver line-up.

The Argentine joined Alpine as a reserve for 2025 before stepping into the race seat from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, replacing Jack Doohan. Retained for this season, he has since scored 19 points across six Grands Prix, working alongside Gasly to help the team to sixth place in the Teams’ Championship.

Colapinto has also built a strong partnership with his French team mate, both on and off the track. Gasly committed his long-term future to the outfit with a deal running until at least the end of 2028, agreed around this time last year, and was widely expected to remain in his seat.

Following internal discussions, Alpine have now extended Colapinto’s stay, describing the pairing with Gasly as “the perfect match-up to drive the team forwards into the future”. The decision underlines a strategic choice to prioritise continuity in the cockpit over further changes in a period when the team is still pushing to close the gap to Formula 1’s leading outfits.

Alpine bets on continuity in a long-term rebuild

The move gives Alpine stability at a time when driver contracts and team identities are evolving across the grid under the regulatory framework overseen by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, which governs the Formula 1 World Championship.

By committing to Colapinto and Gasly, Alpine ensures its race line-up is fixed through 2027 and, in Gasly’s case, beyond. That allows the team to align car development, simulator work and race operations around two known quantities rather than integrating another new driver into an already demanding calendar.

The benefits are both sporting and organisational:

• Technical feedback: A stable driver pair gives engineers consistent references as they chase performance gains across changing circuits and conditions.
• Medium-term planning: With contracts in place, Alpine can focus resources on chassis and power unit development instead of managing near-term driver market uncertainty.
• Team culture: A settled line-up helps consolidate working relationships between drivers, engineers and management during a multi-season rebuild.

Briatore: “Consistency is very important”

Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore framed the decision as a key piece of Alpine’s wider project.

“We are very happy to confirm our driver line-up for 2027 with Franco staying as a race driver alongside Pierre.

“For me, having consistency is very important. We are now settled from a driver point of view and I have said many times that, while this is an important piece of the puzzle, the most significant we have to get right is designing and building a fast race car, which absolutely remains our number one priority.

“We have seen Franco truly grow and mature into a great driver this year. His results in Miami and Montreal especially confirmed what I already knew: Franco belongs in Formula 1 and he belongs at this team.

“I expect both Franco, and Pierre, to continue doing a fantastic job on track and for the entire team to push relentlessly until we are fighting, and winning, at the front end of this sport.”

Briatore’s remarks underline that, while Alpine views its driver situation as resolved, the competitive benchmark remains the front of the grid. The emphasis on car performance reflects the broader reality of modern Formula 1: under cost cap and technical regulations, marginal gains in design and development are often more decisive than frequent changes in driver personnel.

Colapinto’s progression recognised with longer-term role

Colapinto’s elevation from reserve driver to confirmed race seat through 2027 completes a rapid progression within the team structure. Having stepped in mid-season in 2025, he has since converted that opportunity into points-scoring consistency and earned the trust of Alpine management.

“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.

“We have a lot more milestones to reach and I know the team is working so hard in finding performance and making the car better and better.

“Our long-term goals are obvious – to compete and win – and I am grateful to the team, Flavio and Steve [Nielsen, Managing Director], for the trust placed in me to be one of its drivers going into the future.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how everything plays out and focusing on my job on-track first and foremost.”

For Colapinto, the extension secures his place in the sport beyond the usual one-year horizons that many younger drivers face. It gives him a defined role in Alpine’s project and a platform to continue building his reputation within the World Championship, in which teams’ and drivers’ standings shape both sporting prestige and commercial positioning.

Impact on the Constructors’ battle and driver market

Alpine’s current position of sixth in the Teams’ Championship, achieved with the combined efforts of Colapinto and Gasly this season, provides the backdrop for the renewal. Consolidating that standing – and attempting to move higher – will be central to how the partnership is judged.

Keeping the same line-up also has implications beyond Enstone. In a driver market where several seats often change hands in quick succession, Alpine’s decision removes one potential vacancy and closes off a route into the team for others already on or just outside the grid. It gives rival teams and drivers a clearer view of where opportunities may still appear and where they are now shut until at least 2027.

Internally, it allows Alpine to set performance targets with fewer variables. With two experienced race drivers in place, the focus will fall more sharply on whether the car can regularly challenge for higher points positions and, in time, podiums.

Timing ahead of Monza upgrade for Colapinto

The announcement comes ahead of next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, where Colapinto is set to receive the upgraded package that Alpine introduced early with Gasly at the previous round in Zandvoort.

Rolling the update across both cars at Monza gives Alpine a clean data set on a high-speed circuit and offers Colapinto the same technical tools as his team mate at a key stage of the season. With both drivers confirmed for the longer term, the team can evaluate the development step not only in terms of immediate points but also in light of how the car concept may evolve into future campaigns.

As the World Championship continues under its current regulatory cycle, Alpine’s choice to lock in Colapinto alongside Gasly reflects a broader strategic bet: that sustained progress will come from stability and optimisation around a fixed core, rather than repeated changes at the sharp end of the garage.