Franco Colapinto warned of Alpine axe with Flavio Briatore a ‘bomb ready to explode’

Franco Colapinto has been warned that his Alpine F1 future is “not safe”, with Flavio Briatore described as a “bomb that can explode at any minute”.

Colapinto’s future at Alpine isn’t secure after an underwhelming return to F1.

The Argentine was drafted in as a replacement for Jack Doohan following the Miami Grand Prix.

Colapinto has struggled since returning to the grid, while luck hasn’t been entirely on his side.

His run of poor performances has resulted in Briatore exploring alternatives.

It’s been widely reported that Briatore held talks with Mercedes over possibly signing Valtteri Bottas for the remainder of the season.

Riccardo Patrese, who worked under Briatore at Benetton in 1993, compared his former boss to a World War II bomb.

“Anything can happen with Briatore,” Patrese told Online Slots. “From my point of view, Briatore is like a bomb that can explode at any minute; a Second World War bomb that you discover in some places around the world which goes off.

“With Colapinto not performing and making accidents, he can have a problem with Briatore who won’t help with a driver’s morale. So Colapinto in this moment is not safe.”

Will Alpine turn to Bottas?

Alpine could turn to Bottas for the remainder of the 2025 F1 season.

Colapinto is set to drive at the next two races in Belgium and Hungary before the summer break.

Since failing to land the Sauber drive for this year, Bottas has spent the season as Mercedes’ test and reserve driver.

The Finn has attended the majority of the races this season, acting as a key tutor to Kimi Antonelli in his debut year.

Bottas has kept sharp on-track, testing for Mercedes and McLaren throughout the year.

Recently, he got to drive Mercedes’ 2025 challenger at the Circuit Paul Ricard, which hosted the French GP between 2018 and 2022.

Pierre Gasly, who has scored all of Alpine’s points in 2025, dismissed speculation about Bottas as just “noise”.

Gasly said: “I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s a lot of noise. I think the car, I’m showing every weekend what we can do with it, doing a very good job on Saturdays and putting it in places that on paper we all agree we should not really be.

“It’s just tricky, it’s a very tight midfield and we are at the back of it. There will always be noise, especially considering what happened earlier in the year, but I think at the end of the day we should just focus on the work ahead.

“It’s going to be a long season. We don’t have upgrades, the car is not in the best place, but all of us need to focus on what we’ve got to do and try and do it the best way that we can.”