Could Alpine bench Franco Colapinto for Malaysia and who could replace him?

Flavio Briatore’s public rebuke of Franco Colapinto for wiping out Alpine Formula 1 team-mate Pierre Gasly in Azerbaijan has led to speculation that he could be stood down.

Colapinto locked up into the first corner at a safety car restart during Saturday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and took out himself, team-mate Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris in a multi-car collision. 

Reigning world champion Norris called for Colapinto to be banned for causing the chain reaction incident, which also led to the Argentine feeling the wrath of Alpine executive Briatore, who revealed the team will consider what action to take next. 

"I want to take time to reflect on it and consider what course of action should be taken, so we can learn from it and avoid such a situation in future,” said Briatore, who also apologised to Norris and McLaren on behalf of Alpine. 

"I know that Franco has taken full responsibility for it, as he should; in fact he braked far too late considering the context of the race and the safety car restart. It was a very poor move for a driver of his experience.”

Briatore’s comments have prompted conjecture over what Alpine could do next, and just how far the team could go. 

Consequences for Colapinto could range from an internal warning, fine or some form of team orders being implemented, to the most severe option of benching him from the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. 

Crash.net understands that Alpine considers the speculation to simply be a response to Briatore’s comments, and that as an internal matter, it will be dealt with as such. 

Briatore is a highly charged, unpredictable and ruthless character, and therefore the idea of suspending Colapinto from a race as punishment cannot be totally ruled out, even if it might seem too extreme a measure. 

It comes amid a backdrop of social media abuse from Colapinto fans towards Gasly that Briatore has had to deal with, leading to the Italian threatening an Argentinian media blackout. 

Now, Alpine has suffered a significant loss of points over a needless crash. Briatore is furious at what unfolded in Baku and will not accept a repeat. 

Who could replace Colapinto? 

If Alpine opted for the nuclear option and stood Colapinto down for the next race, who could actually replace him? 

Its immediate options appear fairly limited. Alpine has two official reserve drivers, former Formula 2 frontrunner Paul Aron and Kush Maini. 

Aron would likely be viewed as ahead of Maini in the pecking order given he has taken part in several F1 Friday practice sessions for both Alpine and Audi. The 22-year-old Estonian was a contender for a race seat this year before Alpine ultimately decided to stick with Colapinto, who recently earned an extension for 2027.

In contrast, Maini has conducted several F1 tests as part of Alpine’s TPC programme, as well the post-season rookie test in Abu Dhabi, but he is yet to make an appearance during a grand prix weekend. 

The highly-rated Alex Dunne, who signed with the Alpine Academy ahead of the 2026 F2 season, does not hold the required 40 points for a super licence. 

Alpine also has former Red Bull and AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat on its books. Kvyat has been quietly supporting the team this year as a simulator driver, but he has not raced in F1 since 2020. 

Kvyat, who started 110 grands prix from 2014 to 2020, had a stint as Alpine’s reserve driver in 2021. The 32-year-old Russian shares the simulator work with Aron and Maini. 

2022 Formula 3 champion Victor Martins has ties to Alpine through the World Endurance Championship, though he officially serves as the test and development driver for Williams. 

Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti could be another option through Alpine’s power unit supply deal with the German manufacturer. 

But in all of the above cases, there is no guarantee they would perform better than Colapinto, who has proved to be a consistent points scorer this term, contributing 27 points to Alpine’s current 2026 total of 68. 

Other than serving as a harsh lesson for Colapinto, it is difficult to see what Alpine would gain from making him sit out of a race when it is in an ultra-competitive battle to secure fifth place in the constructors’ championship.