Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto suffered a crash on Wednesday at the Hungaroring race track and was rushed to a medical center as a precaution. Alpine later confirmed that the 22-year-old, who was testing the 2026-spec tires, was unharmed.

Colapinto lost control of the car at turn 11, one of the track’s few fast and sweeping curves, and crashed heavily into the contention barriers. The Argentine racer was able to get off the car by his own means, but was nonetheless taken to the track medical center.

“During Day 2 of Pirelli Tyre Testing at the Hungaroring this morning, Franco Colapinto had an incident at Turn 11,” Alpine confirmed in a short statement on X. “Franco was assessed on site at the medical centre and is OK.”

What was the test about

The French-owned team was testing tire provider Pirelli, looking to provide data for the new-spec rubber that the 2026 cars will use. Compared to the current tires, the front tires will be 25mm narrower, while the rear ones will be 30mm narrower. This alters the cars handling and also the tire duration and wear patterns, meaning both the provider and the teams need data to adjust.

The 22-year-old crashed while driving the A523 Alpine race car, which was used during the 2023 season. It was the same car he drove during TPC (Test of Previous Cars) runs in Barcelona, Monza, Qatar, and Zandvoort, in preparation for his promotion to main driver with Alpine.

The Hungaroring racetrack is on the outskirts of the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Despite Colapinto saying it’s “a track and city which [he enjoys],” he’s been very unlucky in runs during 2025. 

At the grand prix on Sunday, he was unable to progress through the field despite qualifying 14th, and suffered back-to-back pitstop blunders by the team, which ended up costing him nearly 20 seconds.

“It was not the best of days today and a difficult race for us as a team,” Colapinto told Alpine F1’s media team after the race. “The pace was good at times in clean air and I had the same feeling as yesterday, […] But with the blue flags and losing time in the pitlane, it really limited what we could achieve.”

F1 now goes into its summer break, with all action halting for the next three weeks. The sport will return on August 29 for the Dutch Grand Prix weekend in Zandvoort, where Colapinto aims to “use this opportunity to rest and reset and be ready to go again.”