We need to talk about the Alpine F1 seats

Okay, so that title is slightly misleading, we only need to talk about one of them and if I was going to give you a clue…it’s not Pierre Gasly’s seat we need to talk about. It’s the other one.

So far, Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto have occupied the second car for the French team, to little avail.

📸 Doohan debuted for Alpine in Abu Dhabi last season.

Doohan was dropped after six rounds, and now Colapinto has completed the same allotment and will take the reins at the next round at Silverstone.

📸 Colapinto remains in the seat currently.

Colapinto moved to Alpine after impressive performances for Williams in 2024 but did the Argentine flatter to decieve? His results so far have been disappointing, and he’s got mistakes in his locker, as he did with Williams. A crash on Alpine debut as Imola on qualifying got him off to an awful start and he was involved with race win challenger Oscar Piastri in Austria, forcing the championship leader onto the grass, seemingly unaware he was being blue flagged as he was a back marker.

📸 Colapinto crashed during qualifying in his first weekend with Alpine.

Results don’t look good on paper, with Gasly scoring all of Alpine’s 11 points so far this season and neither Doohan or Colapinto cracking the top 12, much less the top 10 and points.

So what can Alpine do? Test drivers Kush Maini and Paul Aron lack much experience in the current iteration of F1 car, Doohan is the current reserve and they all raise questions over ability.

There are a number of solid drivers available for a drive should Alpine feel the need to to branch out including; Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher and Sergio Perez but they all come at a different cost.

📸 10 race wins, 67 podiums, 20 pole positions and 246 race starts: Is experienced Bottas the best option?

Alpine are a bit stuck:

Option 1: Stick with Colapinto and hope results take an upturn

Option 2: Bring back Doohan and hope results take an upturn

Or option 3: Bring in a new driver and you guessed it, hope results take an upturn

What would you do?

📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Alpine.