Doubts over Franco Colapinto's Formula 1 future were a major talking point early in the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, but after Sunday's race de facto Alpine team boss Flavio Briatore, who had muddied the waters with his comments on Friday, hailed a "very good race, probably his strongest this season so far".
Colapinto finished 11th and less than half a second behind Esteban Ocon, who was himself battling with Yuki Tsunoda for ninth place on the final lap. This is the closest Colapinto has come to points in his nine events for Alpine since replacing Jack Doohan at Imola in May.
While short of the top-10 finish he so badly needs, it was a good start to a crucial run of races that will decide his F1 future.
Impressing Briatore is key. When Colapinto took the drive at Imola, Briatore asked for three things: to be fast, not crash, and score points. To date, he hasn't delivered on the second and third of those demands, hence Briatore’s statements earlier in the weekend that "I'm not happy" and "it's not what I expect from Colapinto". But at Zandvoort, his speed was good even if the results didn't reflect it.
He was eliminated in Q1 in 16th place, lapping 0.210s slower than team-mate Pierre Gasly. However, that exaggerated the gap as Colapinto lost time in the final sector - certainly more than the 0.067s by which he missed Q2 - thanks to traffic.
"It is frustrating, we were doing a really good quali," said Colapinto. "In general, looking strong, the car was quite good and it was a good lap up until the last sector.
"I had [Carlos] Sainz and [Ollie] Bearman in front in Turns 11-13. I lost a lot of downforce and lost that tenth and a half to Pierre, and it's the tenth that didn't let me go through. The car was feeling strong, which is of course the best part. But when it's so tight, these little things matter a lot."
Reviewing the onboard footage confirms that it was legitimate to complain about the effect of Sainz's and Bearman's cars, albeit not because they were doing anything worthy of investigation for impeding. That's just the nature of a track like Zandvoort where it's difficult for cars not on quick laps to keep out of the way and turbulence can have an impact on a car some way behind. Had he made Q2, Colapinto would likely have qualified close to Gasly and perhaps could even have challenged him given it wasn't a perfect Q2 for his team-mate.
After starting on softs, Colapinto took advantage of a Gasly twitch in the penultimate corner to pass him for 14th into Turn 1. Their positions were later reversed by team orders as Colapinto started to struggle on the soft tyres with Gasly more comfortable on mediums, a logical instruction to maximise the team's chances in the circumstances.
Colapinto then pitted on lap 19 to switch to hards, shortly before the safety car was deployed for the first time. That meant he took the restart down in 17th, having been denied the chance to make gains with the undercut.
He also ended up behind Lance Stroll and Haas duo Ocon and Bearman, who he had run ahead of in the first stint, staying out. He almost immediately gained two places after Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson clashed to run 15th and had moved up another position by the time the safety car was deployed for the second time thanks to Fernando Alonso making a second stop. He took the 'free' pitstop to fit mediums and restarted 15th, but was bottled up behind Ocon. When the safety car made its third appearance, he pitted to bolt on softs without any change in position.
After some frustration from Colapinto about how long it was taking to restart the race, understandable given he had a grip advantage and the chance to go for points, he had four laps to attack. Chasing Ocon, he had a run on him into Turn 1 on the second of those laps, but the Haas driver took advantage of a tow from Gasly to hold him off. Ocon - on mediums - then cut to the inside to attack Gasly, with Colapinto on the Haas driver's outside caught up behind his team-mate into Turn 1. Ocon eventually completed the pass through Turn 2.
Colapinto then slotted in behind Gasly, who was struggling on ageing hard Pirellis on a one-stop strategy. Colapinto made his frustration clear over the radio, with Gasly ordered to let him by - and complying at Turn 1. This was in accordance with the strategy discussed by the team before the race, which felt it best to stipulate the first corner as the designated passing place.
However, by the time Colapinto was past, Ocon was just over 2.5s clear. He closed up, but ran out of time to mount an attack and finished 12th on the road, which became 11th thanks to Antonelli's penalty.
"It was a good race," said Colapinto. "We were very close to my first point with the team, so it's very disappointing. I was expecting that we may have scored a point and we were just short, so I'm not very happy. But there are positive things as well. I don't think we could have managed our side of the race better."
He also said that "we just didn’t maximise it as a team at the end", which is a nod to his frustration that he was behind Gasly. However, the team had no problem with what happened given Gasly followed instructions and felt that given it was a restart lap it wouldn't have been safe to let Colapinto go immediately given the narrow track.
It's true that ideally Colapinto wouldn't have lost that time behind Gasly, but stage-managing that while battling in a pack is easier said than done and the pre-set guidelines were used.
Colapinto referred to the positives, and the fact that he came close to points and generally performed well is what really matters for his longer-term prospects. This weekend, he returns to Monza where he impressed on his Williams debut last year at the beginning of a run of events where he had success in 2024.
Unlike his previous 2025 outings, he is going to track's where he already has a year's worth of F1 racing experience and data under his belt.
Zandvoort was a solid foundation, and if he can kick on from there he will strengthen his case for remaining at Alpine to the end of the season, or even beyond.
