Flavio Briatore said this week he is only asking new Alpine Formula 1 driver Franco Colapinto three things: to be fast, not crash, and score points.
Shunting heavily in Q1 at Imola immediately falls short of one of those demands, as well as making a point-scoring debut very difficult.
Colapinto is fortunately OK after the incident, having had precautionary checks at the medical centre, and he will not - or should not - be judged on Imola alone.
But nonetheless this is not the impression he wanted to make on his first weekend with his new team after replacing Jack Doohan, a driver Alpine executive advisor and de facto team principal Briatore felt was not quick enough and made too many errors.
Briatore told Sky Sports Italy that Colapinto will “race as much as needed” and could “drive forever” if he meets those three aforementioned conditions. Inevitably, the feeling is that Colapinto is in a genuinely strong position to keep the drive longer-term.
“I read somewhere that he’ll have five races, but no, there’s no set limit on his races," said Briatore. That seemed an odd remark given this information came directly from Alpine’s announcement of the Doohan/Colapinto change, and included a quote from Briatore saying this is the line-up for the next five races, but in reality all he means is that Colapinto’s time is guaranteed to be that long. It could be longer.
This was already known - you don’t put a driver in mid-season if there is no serious chance of him keeping the seat should he do a good job. So the point is that this is an ongoing evaluation. And in that case, anything that happens - good or bad - should theoretically impact the decision Alpine ultimately makes.
In that context, this is an obvious mark against Colapinto. Especially as the main downside to his generally impressive Williams part-season in 2024 was that he had heavy crashes, two in Brazil (in qualifying and the race) and in qualifying in Las Vegas.
The last one was the worst, not just because of the atrocious conditions in Brazil but because Vegas was a result of poor judgement and risk management. And this accident at Imola was also a consequence of imprecision and a little overzealousness.
While Alpine did not look quite as fast as it was on Friday, the car was clearly capable of getting through to at least Q2 and Colapinto’s first run was decent, just three tenths slower than team-mate Pierre Gasly, potentially putting him in Doohan pace territory already, straight out of the blocks.
Franco Colapinto suffers a big off as he makes his Formula 1 qualifying return 💔#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/sAEc1kGrcj
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 17, 2025
Colapinto is learning the limits, and should be afforded a little extra grace as a result, but this was a painful reminder of the risk vs reward balance and how much is at stake in Q1. It looked like Colapinto just ran a tiny bit wide picking up the throttle - earlier than before? more than before? - and the rear snapped as he got on the grass and exit kerb. He might have briefly thought he would get away with it, but it also may have all happened too quickly for him to bail out.
That will be for Colapinto and the team to understand quickly, and for him to take on board for next time. Monaco is not the place to be taking extra margin at the wrong time. And Colapinto’s priority needs to be to show the best of his ability, not replicate the low points of 2024.
He has generally looked comfortable, composed and reasonably quick this weekend and should have been in an ideal place to use Q1 and Q2 (at least) to build some knowledge of the car really on the limit. And who knows where that could have led if his solid practice and early Q1 trajectory had continued?
Gasly is starting in the top 10 and a good bet for points, and Colapinto could have been in the mix instead of facing a long race starting near the back - potentially with a one-place grid penalty for erroneously going to the end of the pitlane during the first red flag period because of a miscommunication leaving the garage.
This is clearly Colapinto’s drive to keep or lose, and he has been given clear targets to meet. The crash is the worst-case scenario for his Alpine debut and falls short of a key demand, but it is just one of (theoretically) five qualifying evaluations.
It can be compounded by repeat errors. Or it can quickly be forgotten, starting with a strong drive in Sunday’s race.
Lead photo by Daniele Roversi
