Franco Colapinto part of ‘X Factor’ auditions for Alpine F1 2026 seat

Alpine are evaluating their options for F1 2026 with 'X Factor' style auditions following their brutal driver swap, it has been claimed.

The team confirmed on Wednesday morning that Franco Colapinto will drive for the next five grands prix as a replacement for Jack Doohan, who had contested the first six races of the 2025 F1 season.

Colapinto will get five rounds to impress alongside Pierre Gasly in a decision which has been taken with one eye on the future and the looming regulation changes in 2026.

That is according to Sky Sports F1 reporter Craig Slater, who drew a comparison to British reality television music competition ‘The X Factor’ as he analysed the latest developments at Enstone.

“Alpine think they are going to have a good package for next season. They’ve got Mercedes engines, their chassis already very good. They’ve got some good people behind the scenes,” Slater said on Sky Sports News.

“They might be one of a quartet of teams that can potentially fight for the championship next year. Even some people are linking Max Verstappen with a potential move to Alpine, although that seems far-fetched at the moment.

“They’ve got Pierre Gasly who they believe in. They’ve had a look at Jack Doohan. Franco Colapinto, they’ve already given four tests to in a historic car alongside Paul Aron, the young Estonian, who is also on their books.

“They want to evaluate the best driver pairing for 2026. Maybe at the end of these five races, they might decide against Colapinto. Maybe they’ll give Aron a run in the team?

“I think that’s unlikely. I think if Colapinto does okay he will stay in for the rest of the year but that’s the idea that this is a little bit of a driver X-factor, a little bit of a competition and comparison between them to see who partners Gasly next season.”

How much of a role did finances play?

Colapinto’s significant financial backing is believed to have influenced Alpine’s decision.

“The financial inducements behind Colapinto make him an attractive prospect, if all other factors are equal,” Slater explained.

“It’s a tough world, it’s a cruel world but it’s a ruthless world and ultimately Flavio Briatore is a tough guy who takes tough decisions and this is very much out of his playbook, you have to say.

“Maybe the biggest single factor with regard to why Colapinto is in the car now, and that is the financial compulsions of all of this.

“My information is that Alpine paid €4.5m to get Colapinto on a loan deal from Williams, within five years he has to potentially go back to Williams. But he brings in a lot of money, maybe up to €20m per season, only if he drives however - so he has to be in the car.”

Colapinto’s promotion was confirmed just 12 hours after team principal Oliver Oakes’ shock departure from Alpine was announced.

Asked if the two developments are linked, Slater replied: “Interestingly not necessarily, is what I’m being told behind the scenes.

“The factory only found out last night about Oliver Oakes. They were informed yesterday that two bits of news were coming and no reasons have been given thus far as to why Oliver Oakes is leaving as team principal.

“I don’t think he in principal disagreed with the fact they were going to switch Doohan and Colapinto but he possibly disagreed with the timing of it.

“Was there a sense in his own mind that ‘am I team principal or are the big executive decisions really being taken by Briatore? Is this job not quite as it was sold to me when I took it on?’.

“But perhaps there were other aspects behind the scenes that were going on that we will only find out at a later point.

“The fact of the switch coming now and the decision being taken, maybe he feels that Briatore just needs to be team principal, in name or whether he takes that job on permanently, or seeks another kind of deputy to run the factory while he is the public face of the team. I think that’s likelier.

“There are people like Davide Sanchez, Dave Greenwood at Alpine that can do the kind of oversight of the factory while he [Briatore] does the politics.

“No explanation for why Oakes has gone but there could be some other issues behind the scenes that have prompted that.”