Alpine Team Principal Flavio Briatore puts pressure on Franco Colapinto by acknowledging the performance of the Alpine Driver, and the results are not what he expected.
Alpine replaced Jack Doohan after the Miami Grand Prix in early May and chose to promote Cora Pinto from his reserve driver role just six rounds of the current season. The 22-year-old Argentina has yet to score points in his seven starts so far. (Photo above and Cora Pinto) Now he’s questioning whether he needs to develop more time before he can win another race seat.
“I think I’ve already seen everything,” Briatore said. “I don’t think I need to see anything anymore.
“It’s very difficult for these drivers to deal with this car. These cars are very, very, very, very, very, very fast. It may not be when a younger driver has Franco on the Franco 1.
“I’m not happy. What matters is the outcome. He’s working very hard. We’re working hard with our engineers to please everything, but in reality we don’t expect anything from Corapinto.”
Despite these comments, Briatore suggested that he could be responsible for how he handled the rookie, as he pushed Alpine’s second seat plan alongside Pierre Guthrie in 2026 until the rest of this season.
“There aren’t many changes (made by Alpine),” he said. “We changed Doohan with Corapinto, and perhaps there was too much pressure on him to be in Formula 1. Last year he did very well (Williams) and did two or three races.
“I think we need to consider that. Drivers are human and we need to understand exactly what is going on in these kids’ heads, because these are young children, so I think it’s a mistake to underestimate the human part of the driver.
“We’re always looking at timing. Maybe I’ve missed something to manage my driver’s Cora Pinto. For the future, honestly, I don’t know.”
