Alpine made the widely anticipated but still highly controversial decision to demote Jack Doohan back to a reserve role after just six races. Replacing the rookie from Imola onwards will be Franco Colapinto, a man with immense popularity in the Latin American region and rich sponsors backing him.
Reportedly, that had played a role in getting him to Alpine as a reserve driver in the first place. That’s when Doohan started feeling the pressure at first. It was also believed among the F1 community that Doohan only had a six-race contract to impress the Alpine bosses in the first place. And surprise surprise, after six races, the Aussie’s career atop the motorsport world has come to a grinding halt.
This time, Alpine has officially announced that Colapinto has just signed a five-race contract.
However, this decision may have less to do with Doohan‘s underwhelming performances on the track or Colapinto’s talent, which he proved last year with Williams. It could simply be Alpine trying to make their money back, at least Craig Slater feels so.
“What I am learning is that the financial compulsions in all of this have played a big part in him being swapped in for Doohan,” the veteran journalist said in a Sky Sports segment.
Before the season, Alpine got the Argentine driver to their roster by paying a significant (but undisclosed) sum to Williams, where he was also a reserve. And knowing that there’s not going to be any major strides on the track anyway in 2025, Slater feels Alpine has just decided to swap them to make the best use of the money spent.
“Therefore, there’s an onus the recoup the money. The fact that it’s just for five races is an unusual thing, and I think the expectation is, if he does ok, he will be there for the rest of the year.”
According to some sources, Colapinto could bring in as much as $560k per race. After five rounds, that amount will be $2.8 million, which is huge for the Enstone-based squad. So there’s a chance that even decent performances from the 21-year-old will help him keep his spot.
Focused on the job ahead pic.twitter.com/KC7kytOi8C
— BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@AlpineF1Team) May 8, 2025
Slater, however, added that there is a belief within Alpine that they could perform very well in 2026, when the regulation changes will give all teams a clean slate. For Alpine, there is optimism because they will no longer be using Renault-powered engines. The French squad will switch to Mercedes power units, and reports suggest that the Silver Arrows could develop one of the best engines on the grid next year.
“So for now, they’re using these races to assess their driver pool,” Slater added.
Doohan, now, will go back to fulfilling duties as a reserve, which he did between 2023 and 2024. However, he seemingly hasn’t given up. On Instagram, while wishing his trainer Sergi Bou Garcia a happy birthday, the Aussie wrote, “We’ll be back.”
