There are few out there drives left for Formulation 1’s 2026 season. Purple Bull’s poisoned-chalice second seat alongside Max Verstappen stays open, because the crew works out what to do with Yuki Tsunoda, and the results of filling that seat will lengthen to the Racing Bulls operation. Mercedes additionally doesn’t have drivers underneath contract for subsequent yr, however will retain George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 2026. Alpine has the one different emptiness.
Though the Alpine lead driver spot was by no means unsure – Pierre Gasly was already signed up for subsequent yr earlier than extending his contract to the top of 2028 – the occupant of the second seat stays undecided.
After Steve Nielsen began work as managing director at the beginning of September, the extension of Gasly adopted fairly swiftly; now, the subsequent merchandise on the Briton’s in-tray is to determine his accomplice for subsequent yr.
Since its experiments with inexperienced drivers this season haven’t been fully profitable, as Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto have shared the seat and are but to attain factors, Alpine is contemplating whether or not to stay or twist with its method.
There’s a lack of skilled choices out there, so Alpine could also be pressured to stay with youth. Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez made contact with Alpine however, as they had been superior in Cadillac contract talks, they had been by no means actually near signing with the Enstone crew. Together with the standard suspects, there are a few candidates who might be out there relying on how contract talks progress elsewhere.
Let’s check out Alpine’s important 2026 choices.
The more than likely selection: Franco Colapinto
Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photograph by: Bryn Lennon / Formulation 1 by way of Getty Pictures
This might symbolize the secure possibility for Alpine. Briatore has hinted that the crew might need tried to hurry the Argentine a bit an excessive amount of, with an excessive amount of strain on his shoulders after coming in for Jack Doohan after Miami.
“Final yr he did very properly. However perhaps to be within the crew with driver like Pierre, and at all times in competitors with the team-mate, perhaps we put an excessive amount of strain on him,” Briatore defined at Zandvoort. “I feel we have to contemplate that. The driving force is a human being and we have to perceive what’s occurring within the heads of those youngsters. These are younger youngsters and I feel it’s our mistake to underestimate the human a part of the driving force. We’re at all times wanting on the timing. Perhaps I missed one thing within the administration [of Colapinto].”
Colapinto landed at Williams with no expectation on his shoulders and carried out admirably, however started to rack up the crashes; though final yr’s FW46 was generally tough on the rear, Colapinto could have began to take heed to the hype. Transferring to Alpine in a reserve function very a lot felt like a sure precursor to a full-time drive earlier than too lengthy, and so it proved when Doohan was demoted after six races.
But it surely’s not been straightforward going. Colapinto shunted first outing throughout qualifying at Imola, and has but to determine inside the high 10. Outcomes have began to return to him, nonetheless, and ending eleventh at Zandvoort put him inside touching distance of an all-important level. His qualifying head-to-head with Gasly now stands at 7-3, which is not too unhealthy, however he isn’t fairly been the explosive presence that final yr’s performances had demonstrated. He is not been a transparent step up on Doohan.
The ‘we bought it fallacious’ selection: Jack Doohan
Jack Doohan, Alpine
Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Pictures
It is unlikely that Alpine will go crawling again to Doohan, however we’ll maintain him within the ring for now. One suspects that, if the crew actually felt the Australian was price pursuing, it could have reinstated him to the line-up at Colapinto’s expense…except advertising and marketing forces/satisfaction had been at stake.
That stated, Doohan most likely did not get a good crack of the whip. There have been too many crashes, sure, however Colapinto has ensured the identical misfortune since changing him – he is simply compartmentalised his shunts in much less essential components of the weekend. It appeared that Doohan was on the up, nonetheless; he’d drawn degree with Gasly at 3-3 in grand prix qualifying classes in Miami, however coalesced with Liam Lawson on the first nook to carry his race to an early finish.
Though Doohan hadn’t been precisely stellar in these six races, it by no means felt like he was set as much as succeed. However maybe Alpine had already seen sufficient by means of TPC runs and thru the primary quarter of the season: he was a succesful driver, however not one with the spark it was in search of. Both manner, it should proceed to evaluate the Queenslander and decide whether or not it made the proper selection earlier this yr. A route again does, nonetheless, look unlikely.
The left-field selection: Paul Aron
Flavio Briatore, Govt Advisor of Alpine F1 talks with Paul Aron.
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
The so-far under-utilised third prong within the Alpine teenager trident, Aron was one among Ollie Oakes’ signings earlier than Oakes resigned as crew principal, having impressed on the Briton’s Hitech crew.
That the Estonian has caught round means that he is earned some credit score within the financial institution by means of his simulator runs, and was loaned out to Sauber for 2 FP1 runs instead of Nico Hulkenberg earlier than deputising for Colapinto in FP1 at Monza in his first Alpine run. He was on the tempo in his Sauber runs, albeit along with his second outing in Hungary curtailed by a powertrain problem. He was the 0.5s off Gasly’s greatest time in Monza’s FP1 session.
Aron led a few of final yr’s F2 title race earlier than dropping floor to Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar, though the concept that he stored such robust firm reasonably suggests he might hack it in F1 if given the prospect. Hearsay has it that he is additionally displayed good tempo in TPC runs, and should absolutely be worthy of consideration if Colapinto does not fairly collect momentum over the remainder of 2025.
The skilled selection: Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls Staff, Yuki Tsunoda, Purple Bull Racing Staff
Photograph by: Joe Portlock / LAT Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
It’s extremely possible that one driver goes to be jettisoned from the Purple Bull ecosystem on the finish of the yr, as Arvid Lindblad turns into extra strongly linked with a Racing Bulls debut subsequent season. Additional shuffling is probably going if Isack Hadjar finally ends up with a Purple Bull promotion.
Thus, it depends upon who’s extra more likely to lose out between Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. If Alpine felt that its rookie-based experimentation wasn’t getting anyplace, then both would pose a known-quantity possibility. In direction of the top of their time as team-mates, Tsunoda was on phrases with Gasly, whereas Lawson was additionally thought-about to be a match for Tsunoda at occasions. Nonetheless, their hopes of thriving at Purple Bull had been dealt a blow by their difficulties with a capricious RB21 chassis.
Both could be a wise possibility for Alpine for 2026. Gasly might be inclined to help Tsunoda’s credentials contemplating that the 2 bought on properly throughout their AlphaTauri days, though Briatore could also be an appreciator of Lawson’s hard-headed method to racing because the Kiwi continues his rehabilitation from a bruising two races at Purple Bull.
The “Moneyball” selection: Leonardo Fornaroli
Podium: Race winner Leonardo Fornaroli, Invicta Racing
Photograph by: Formulation Motorsport Ltd
If the Italian’s not in rivalry for an Alpine drive, then he very a lot ought to be. After profitable the F3 title with no victory to his title (his consistency very a lot preserving him above his sequence counterparts), Fornaroli has kicked on and racked up 4 wins in F2 as he seeks to develop into the subsequent back-to-back winner of the F1 junior classes.
At the moment, the Piacenza-born driver is following an analogous profession trajectory to Gabriel Bortoleto: F3 win with Trident, and now main the F2 standings with Invicta. Remarkably, Fornaroli stays a free agent on the subject of F1 junior-team standing, a quirk that has his Invicta crew principal James Robinson puzzled.
“It is completely mind-blowing that he hasn’t been introduced for an F1 function for subsequent yr already, on condition that when you suppose many of the different drivers within the high seven or eight positions within the championship are a part of F1 crew academies,” Robinson instructed Motorsport.com.
“I feel Leo is a little bit of a Moneyball-type choose. He does not do the massive banzai strikes that some drivers do. He does not do foolish dances on the rostrum. He is not very outspoken within the media. However having labored in Formulation 1 for 20 years, understanding what F1 groups search for in drivers, Leo is an distinctive man by way of growing a automobile.”
If Alpine continues to have a look at youth over expertise for 2026, Fornaroli’s title success(es, most likely) ought to put him on the high of that record.
Anybody else?
At any time when there’s an F1 emptiness, this man is usually linked to it…
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
Alpine’s different junior racers – Kush Maini and Gabriele Mini – haven’t been notably spectacular in F2 this season. Alpine World Endurance Championship driver Mick Schumacher has, nonetheless, been touted as an possibility for the F1 crew, though Briatore instructed Auto Motor und Sport that Schumacher was “not on our record” for 2026.
Alpine additionally has Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi, Fred Makowiecki, Jules Gounon, and Paul-Loup Chatin on its books, however none of them have the Schumacher surname and thus are nowhere close to F1 seat discourse. Fellow ‘son-of’ Gounon can’t depend on the nostalgia of father Jean-Marc’s outcomes at Minardi and Simtek, for instance.
Elsewhere in F2, Luke Browning and Alex Dunne have been wildly spectacular of their first seasons within the championship, whereas they’re tied as much as the Williams and McLaren junior programmes respectively, they absolutely have launch choices if an F1 seat emerges.
Had Mercedes succeeded in luring Max Verstappen to its crew for 2026, paddock whispers had recommended that Antonelli could have been set for an Alpine mortgage deal – doubtlessly knocking off a number of quid off subsequent yr’s powertrain deal. This door is now closed, nonetheless, given Verstappen’s dedication to Purple Bull.
