‘Sometimes it can feel too much’ – Franco Colapinto opens up on his relationship with Flavio Briatore

Franco Colapinto has shared an insight into his relationship with Flavio Briatore, with the Argentinian stating that Briatore is “hard with everyone” but that he believes the Executive Advisor is the right person to “put Alpine back to the top”.

Since Colapinto was promoted to the race team to replace Jack Doohan ahead of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May, the 22-year-old has faced some challenging race weekends and is yet to score a point, leading to Briatore stating in August that he was “not happy” with his driver’s performance.

However, a better outing at Zandvoort saw Briatore hail the race as “probably his strongest this season so far”, while Colapinto was also recently named by the Italian as one of two drivers – alongside reserve Paul Aron – in contention for a race seat at the squad in 2026.

During an appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Colapinto reflected on how he has found working with Briatore and suggested that the experience has made him “a lot stronger”.

“I have a very good relationship [with Briatore],” Colapinto explained. “He is hard with everyone. His way of making the team work and making the people motivated is sometimes a bit hard and sometimes it can feel a little bit too much if you don’t know him.

“But he is someone I really believe in and someone that I believe is going to move this team forward and is going to put Alpine back at the top. I learned a lot from him this year. He made me a lot stronger.

“He made me strong mentally and I do believe that years like this, when it starts to become better and when we start to win, to have good results, to be fighting at the top, it’s what makes a difference, so I’m very grateful for the opportunity he gave me, but also for all this process that we are going through.”

Colapinto made his F1 debut for Williams during the final nine races of the 2024 season, having been drafted in as a rookie to replace Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the campaign.

As such, the driver from Buenos Aires has credited this experience – and the various highs and lows that have occurred since – as helping him to build mental strength.

“When I joined, I had a lot of pressure,” said Colapinto. “I was jumping into Formula 1 with no knowledge and I feel that that was the time I had the most pressure ever in my career, when I started racing in Formula 1. So, after that, I felt that nothing could beat me.

“When it goes well, it’s very easy and it’s also tricky to learn much. When it goes bad, when you’re in the bottom, it’s much easier to learn and to become stronger.

“I think that’s what happened after that tricky end to the year in ’24, it also gave me a lot more strength and I learned a lot more things. And this year, by having a difficult start, also made me a lot stronger.

“I feel that now I could capitalise on those things and become much tougher, which is good for the future, good for when we actually can be at the top, and I think it’s going to be really helpful.”

And in terms of what his future might hold – and when Alpine could make a decision – Colapinto added: “I don’t know and I’m not really focused too much on that. I think I want to keep building on this year.

“There is more to learn and I have much more to find, but I’m feeling better in the car, in the team, and I’m feeling that we are doing a good job together.

“Of course, there is no secret that the car is not where we want it to be and it’s not good enough at the moment to win the points, but it will come the time that it is and I want to be ready for that so that’s, to me, the main focus at the moment.

“Go race by race and moment by moment and let’s see where we end up. But just happy to be here and let’s see how it continues, this chapter.”