Alpine Extends Colapinto-Gasly Partnership Until 2027

Alpine have nailed their colours to the mast. Franco Colapinto will stay in Formula 1 with the Enstone team next season and into 2027, continuing alongside Pierre Gasly in an unchanged line-up the team believes can drag it back towards the front.

The decision ends any lingering speculation around that second Alpine seat and underlines how quickly Colapinto has gone from back-up plan to cornerstone.

He arrived at the team as a reserve for 2025, only to be thrust into a race drive from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix when Jack Doohan was moved aside. Since then, the Argentine has done far more than simply keep the seat warm.

Nineteen points from six Grands Prix this year tell part of the story. The rest is written in the way he and Gasly have hauled Alpine up to sixth in the Constructors’ standings, often punching above the car’s weight and doing it as a genuine partnership rather than two drivers fighting for the same patch of tarmac.

On and off the track, that pairing has clicked. Gasly, already tied down until at least the end of 2028, was always favourite to stay. The question was whether Alpine would double down on Colapinto or go hunting for a bigger name. Internally, the debate didn’t last long.

After a series of meetings at Enstone and Viry, Alpine chose continuity. The team described the Gasly–Colapinto blend as “the perfect match-up to drive the team forwards into the future”, a clear signal that the driver jigsaw is now complete and attention must swing fully to the machinery beneath them.

Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore, never one to underplay a call, framed it as a vital step but not the final one. Consistency, he stressed, matters. The drivers are locked in; the car still needs to catch up. For Alpine, the message is blunt: the human side of the project is in place, now the engineers must deliver a package worthy of it.

Colapinto’s growth has been impossible to ignore. Briatore highlighted Miami and Montreal as the races that crystallised his view, performances that showed composure, race craft and a refusal to be overawed by the established order. Those weekends confirmed what Alpine’s decision-makers already suspected: Colapinto doesn’t just belong in F1 – he belongs in their long-term plan.

The 21-year-old clearly feels the same. He spoke of feeling “very happy and very settled” inside the team and pointed to the tangible step forward Alpine have made compared to last year. The tone was not celebratory, but determined. There are “a lot more milestones to reach”, he said, and a shared understanding that the only acceptable long-term outcome is to “compete and win”.

Behind the scenes, Steve Nielsen, now Managing Director, has been central to reshaping Alpine’s structure and culture. His name, alongside Briatore’s, in Colapinto’s thanks underlines where the power lines now run at Enstone and who is backing this driver axis.

For Colapinto, the extension also brings clarity at the perfect moment. He heads into next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza with the upgraded package that Gasly ran ahead of schedule at Zandvoort. No more shop-window pressure. No more racing with one eye on the rumour mill. Just a young driver, secure in his future, able to lean fully into the risk and reward of life in the midfield.

Alpine have put their faith in Gasly and Colapinto to lead the project. The question now is whether the car they are given over the next two seasons can match the ambition of the men strapped into it.