Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto is set to compete in the 2025 Formula 1 British Grand Prix in Silverstone next Sunday. With no further news on the 22-year-old’s future at Alpine F1 amid rumors of a replacement, and at a track where he’s been successful before, what can be expected from Colapinto?

Saturday promises turned to Sunday struggles again

Last week’s Austrian GP proved another difficult weekend to navigate for Colapinto. The Argentine driver looked for the correct setup for his car throughout the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, at one point finishing bottom of the pack.

Things looked to take a promising turn in Saturday’s qualifying session, as the 22-year-old was able to break away from the bottom pack and get his car into Q2. But that’d be all for Colapinto, who missed out on a Q3 berth in a tightly contested pack, qualifying in 14th.

The race was tougher for the Argentine driver. He was one of the few drivers starting the race on soft tires, but any early advantage was dashed when the opening lap crash between Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen brought out the safety car. Later in the race, he suffered a shunt from Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, and later a penalty pushed him back, coming to the checkered flag in 15th.

“The weekend in Austria was challenging,” Colapinto told the Alpine F1 media team after the race. “We made some positive steps between practice and qualifying; however, the grid is so tightly packed every single detail on track counts. 

The Argentine driver admitted they struggled with the balance of the car in the race but insisted that chances of improving his position were slim after suffering contact.

How has Colapinto done at Silverstone?

Like Austria’s Red Bull Ring, the Silverstone track in England is one Colapinto is familiar with. 

He first ran at the historic venue in 2022 with Formula 3. Running for the Van Amersfoort team, he finished 13th in the sprint race but had to retire from the main event. A year later, this time with MP Motorsport, he tasted success as he won the sprint race on Saturday. He couldn’t repeat the feat on Sunday, finishing 8th in the main race.

In 2024, Colapinto raced three times at Silverstone. With F1 and junior category F2 taking to the track at the same weekend, the Argentine racer took part in the F2 GP, finishing 5th in the sprint and fourth in the main event. 

However, his biggest test of the weekend came as Williams chose him to run with the F1 team in the first practice session of the 2024 British GP as part of his training as a Williams Academy driver. His best time was a 1:29.078, which put him in 18th in the time sheet, just 0.4 seconds behind the other Williams car, driven by regular driver Alexander Albon.

Talking to the Alpine media team ahead of the race, Colapinto sounded confident an improvement is possible for himself and the team.

“I am looking forward to getting out on track at Silverstone,” he said. “It is a local race for the team with the factory just down the road in Enstone, so it is nice to be able to spend some time there with the team in between the double-header races. We are keeping our focus on one race at a time and continuing to work together to make improvements each weekend.”

Rumors of a replacement

While Alpine confirmed Colapinto for the British GP, there’s still no confirmation of whether he’ll see out the season with the Renault-owned team. 

He’ll undoubtedly have a weight lifted off his shoulders after Paul Aron, the other driver that had joined Alpine as a reserve, was announced as the new reserve driver for the Kick Sauber F1 team. But the rumor mill hasn’t stopped yet, with the official F1 site saying Alpine had inquired about the availability of 10-time race winner and current Mercedes reserve Valtteri Bottas. Since then, however, Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has gone on to dismiss the talk. Asked on the matter by the Herald, an Alpine spokesperson called it “just speculation.”