Alpine to pick between Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron for 2026 Formula 1 🏁 | OneFootball

Flavio Briatore, executive advisor and the main decision-maker at Alpine, confirmed on Friday that he will choose between Franco Colapinto and Estonian Paul Aron, after considering it "for one or two more races", to form the duo with Pierre Gasly for the 2026 Formula 1 season.

"It's between Franco and Paul," the Italian told The Race, thus quashing rumors that he might opt for Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda if they left the Red Bull structure. He also assured that he will not go for any emerging talent from Formula 2.

Briatore valued Colapinto's progress in recent races. First, he explained that "young drivers come to the team under a lot of pressure", while later adding that "it's very difficult to manage the car and talk to the engineers" in "a huge team, of a thousand people, a great responsibility".

"Maybe some drivers arrived in F1 too soon," he repeated, but clarified that "after six, seven or eight races you can see that (Kimi) Antonelli is better, (Gabriel) Bortoleto is better, and now Franco is better".

For his part, Aron, a 21-year-old Estonian, is the one who drove the Argentine's A525 in the first practice of the last Italian GP in Monza. During 2025 he worked on the simulator and various tests, between the TPC program (with cars from previous seasons) and the Pirelli tire tests.

"Paul is a good guy and also a very fast driver. And I need to understand what is best for the team. (...) My only interest is to try to incorporate the best available driver and who does the best job with us. It's that simple," Briatore highlighted.

These statements by Briatore suggest that there will be many days of uncertainty regarding the future second driver of Alpine. In this context, there is a key point that may play in Colapinto's favor: the unbeatable chance to demonstrate on the track - and not in the simulator - that he is the best option.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.