Photo: Alpine F1 Team
The Alpine Formula 1 team has announced a swapping of roles for its race and reserve drivers Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto over the next five rounds.
It follows a difficult start to the season for Doohan, and also a management change as team principal Oliver Oakes resigned on Tuesday and executive advisor Flavio Britatore – a staunch supporter of Colapinto – has assumed his responsibilities.
Colapinto contested nine grands prix with Williams last year and scored five points, while Doohan has done seven with Alpine so far and failed his score. His best starting position is 11th, and he has not finished higher than 13th in a race yet.
Doohan has been affiliated to Alpine since 2022, joining its driver development programme that year as he embarked on his first full Formula 2 season. After winning three races, he was being connected to an F1 seat for 2023 but instead was signed as reserve driver and did a second F2 campaign alongside those duties. A further three wins put him third in the standings.
Last year the F1 duties took focus, and by summer Alpine had already decided to promote him to a race seat for 2025. He made his debut early in the season-ending 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, finishing 15th from 17th on the grid.
The 22-year-old Australian currently sits 19th in the championship, while experienced team-mate Pierre Gasly is 12th in the table with seven points.
After the next five events at Imola, Monaco, Barcelona, Montreal and the Red Bull Ring, Alpine will review its driver line-up again and Doohan may be promoted from the reserve driver role again for July’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Colapinto however will be aiming to make his race seat at Alpine permanent, and already has a multi-year contract with the team which does not specify what his 2026 position will be.
After winning races in his rookie FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign, Colapinto was signed to Williams’ driver development programme for 2023. He stayed in F3, taking two victories and fourth in the standings.
Although he was only a junior last year and not given an F1 team role, upon stepping up to F2 he impressed enough with his results from the first 10 rounds (the highlights of which were a sprint race win and two feature race podiums) to get a surprise call-up to race for Williams after it sacked Logan Sargeant.
He scored twice and came 19th in the standings, making a big impact by starting and finishing eighth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on what was only his second weekend in F1, but since Williams had already signed Carlos Sainz Jr from Ferrari to partner Alex Albon for 2025 it meant Colapinto had to pick between the teams that wanted his services as a reserve driver.
The 21-year-old Argentinian’s marketability in his home country has almost as much value as his performances for Alpine, which has picked up Argentinian sponsors since signing Colapinto in January.