F1 News: ‘Crasher’ Colapinto among Alpine’s ‘important assets’

(GMM) Crash-happy Franco Colapinto has instantly become one of Alpine’s “most important assets,” admits famous team advisor Flavio Briatore.

At F1’s London launch, 2025 rookie Jack Doohan was bombarded with journalists’ questions about the longevity of his new race seat.

That’s because newly-signed reserve Colapinto, on loan from Williams, is hotly tipped to replace the Australian within just a few races.

His personal sponsor Mercado Libre is already on the 2025 Alpine livery.

Argentinean Colapinto, 21, knows he has Briatore in his corner.

“I have a lot of confidence in Flavio,” he told Spanish-language publications. “He’s the one who created (Michael) Schumacher, created Fernando Alonso – two of my idols – so obviously the fact that he saw me and said ‘I want to support you, I want you on my team’ is something that makes me very proud.”

Oliver Oakes is Alpine’s team boss, but Briatore is believed to wield even more power – reporting directly to Renault CEO Luca de Meo.

“For me it is a huge pride that Flavio noticed me,” Colapinto continued.

“That he has noticed me and has put his faith in me that I can be a future world champion, as he has said, is something very nice and very special. When I came in, I knew there were no seats for 2025, so I wanted to show what I could do.

“For some reason people like Flavio, like Alpine, like Red Bull, were very interested at the time,” he said.

Colapinto made a mark not only with his speed, personality, and ability to attract strong Argentine commercial backing, but the way he handled his part-season with Williams last year – despite a few notable errors.

“Without having done any test days, any tests in a Formula 1 car, and going straight to racing, is very difficult,” he admits.

“If you look at it today, all the guys who start racing do thousands of kilometers of testing. (Kimi) Antonelli did 10,000 kilometers and I did 400.

“Of course I made mistakes, maybe going a little more than 100 percent when I didn’t have a guaranteed seat,” Colapinto continued. “I raced knowing that and every lap I did, every corner I did, I needed to be at 100 percent.”

As for his personality, the Argentine explained: “I am as I want to be. Max (Verstappen) is also a driver who always says what he feels. I entered Formula 1 from racing in F2 and I tried not to change at all.”

As for what comes next for Colapinto, most insiders expect that Briatore will quite quickly shuffle Doohan back into the reserve seat in order to promote his new protégé.

“We fought to have Franco in the team and he is one of the most important assets for us,” said the 74-year-old Italian.

“We have to be patient, because he is very young, but I believe in talent. Because when you have the talent and you manage it well, you are successful. I can see that Franco is naturally fast.

“This year he will be a test driver and he is already working hard in the simulator,” Briatore concluded.