Alpine are considering their driver options and Franco Colapinto has done himself no favours by crashing in a tyre test this week as the pressure mounts on his place in Formula 1
Franco Colapinto has crashed during a tyre test, his Alpine team has confirmed. It happened on the second and final day of the test at the Hungaroring on Wednesday when he lost control of the car at turn 11 of the circuit which hosted the Hungarian Grand Prix at the weekend.
As the Pirelli tyre tests are held behind closed doors, there is little information around the exact circumstances of the incident. However, images of his smashed-up Alpine began to circulate on social media, prompting his team to issue a statement.
An Alpine spokesperson said: “During day two of Pirelli tyre testing at the Hungaroring this morning, Franco Colapinto had an incident at turn 11. Franco was assessed on site at the medical centre and is okay.”
While Colapinto has fortunately avoided injury, the incident may have done more damage to his chances of keeping his place on the Formula 1 grid. The Argentine was given that Alpine seat in May after Jack Doohan was demoted back to a reserve role.
But, like his predecessor, Colapinto has also failed to score a single point so far this year. That has contributed to the team being rock bottom of the constructors’ championship with just 20 points to show for their efforts across the first 14 rounds of the season so far.
Colapinto showed promise last year when he was parachuted into a Williams seat to replace the axed Logan Sargeant for the final nine rounds of the season. He immediately showed good pace and scored four points with an impressive eighth-placed finish in just his second race.
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More points followed two rounds later in Austin, boosting speculation that Red Bull might swoop in and hand him a race seat at one of their two team this year. But their interest waned as Colapinto suffered a series of costly crashes, raising questions over his ability to extract performance without going over the limit.
And since being given another chance to show what he can do by Alpine this year, he has failed to make much of an impression. He is the only current driver on the grid yet to have recorded a top 10 finish.
Team boss Flavio Briatore has shown patience so far, but it is understood that he has been considering the team’s options behind the scenes. One of them is Valtteri Bottas, who has held talks with the team about a return to the F1 grid having spent this season so far as reserve driver for Mercedes.
Sergio Perez, who lost his place with Red Bull at the end of last year, has also held discussions with Alpine. Both are experienced options but have also been in talks with the new Cadillac project, who are believed to want to sign both F1 race-winners to represent them in their maiden F1 campaign next year.
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