Red Bull had a dismal outing at the Bahrain GP, and the rumor mills are churning again about Max Verstappen eyeing an exit from the Milton Keynes-based team. However, amidst all the speculation about the reigning world champion’s struggles with the RB21, and the team’s inability to find a fix, particularly after the departure of Adrian Newey. But all that buzz has served to take the limelight away from a driver change that might actually happen.
No, not at Red Bull. Ever since the season started, the situation within Alpine has also been generating a lot of murmurs, from within the paddock and outside it. An underwhelming debut for Jack Doohan has only served to up the noise level around their reserve driver, Franco Colapinto.
The Argentine youngster burst onto the F1 scene with Williams last season. Given his undeniable pace and talent, the Enstone-based team signed him up as a reserve driver. Now, if the rumors are to be believed, he is on his way to securing a seat with Alpine at the expense of the misfiring Doohan.
Alpine, majority-owned by Renault, has categorically denied any intention to conduct a mid-season swap between the two drivers. But it seems as though the rumors of a swap are being propagated from inside the Colapinto camp itself.
Now, ESPN’s Katie George suggests that while someone like Verstappen can afford to stir the rumor mill, a newbie like Colapinto trying to do the same thing will be a red flag for other teams.
“I don’t know if your actions right now and your camp’s actions would make a team jump to get you. I just think that that’s a lot of extra nonsense that I don’t want to deal with if I’m a team principal,” she explained on the Unlapped podcast.
Briatore ejerce presión para que el próximo Gran Premio de Arabia Saudita sea una prueba decisiva para Doohan.
Así, el australiano necesitaría conseguir sus primeros puntos en la Fórmula 1, bajo presión de ceder su butaca.
-TN#Doohan #Alpíne #Colapinto pic.twitter.com/OAnxbZkqjB
— ColapintoF1AR (@colapintof1ar) April 16, 2025
George pointed out that as a reserve driver, Colapinto simply does not have the kind of standing to stir up the driver market. Moreover, when individuals like Colapinto’s father — who controversially posted about his son racing at the Miami GP before deleting it — jump on the bandwagon, it only worsens the atmosphere within the team.
The biggest criticism of the situation for George is the fact that these tactics only make the team principal’s job harder, since it’s the team head who has to answer the press. So any team would think twice before onboarding someone like Colapinto (and his noisy entourage), who is yet to become a grid regular, let alone having any concrete achievements under his belt..
