Franco Colapinto benefits from tumultuous night in Alpine after resignation of Team Principal

It has been a turbulent night at Alpine, the English-French Formula 1 team (formerly Renault) with the surprise resignation of Oliver Oakes as Team Principal, announced on Tuesday night. Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor, will cover Oakes' duties, and his first decision this morning has been to promote Franco Colapinto as the main driver, replacing Jack Doohan.

"BWT Alpine Formula One Team therefore announces that Franco Colapinto will be paired with Pierre Gasly from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, ahead of a new evaluation before the British Grand Prix in July. Jack Doohan remains an integral part of the team and will be the first-choice Reserve Driver for this period of time", the team announced.

Alpine tries a rotating system looking for a better 2026

Colapinto, who was pushed out of Williams last year, due to the arrival of Carlos Sainz, will take the main seat of the Alpine A525, bearing the 43 number, for the next five Grand Prix, starting with Imola on May 16-18, followed by Monaco, Barcelona, Canada and Austria. It's a rotating system, to assess Colapinto's performance after Doohan struggled so far, including retiring on Lap 1 last weekend in Miami.

Colapinto was hired as a reserve driver, but given Doohan's poor results, and Colapinto's promising performance when he debuted last year as reserve driver at Williams, have led to this unusual decision. "With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up", said Briatore, explaining that their goal is to prepare for the 2026 season, looking for "a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season".

"We continue to support Jack at the team, as he has acted in a very professional manner in his role as a race driver so far this season", added Briatore.