Franco Colapinto joins Alpine

French Formula One team Alpine has announced that Franco Colapinto will be joining them on a multi-year deal from Williams Racing, taking up the role of Test and Reserve Driver from the Formula One 2025 season onwards.

Colapinto will be present at a ‘number of races’ throughout the year and will be sharing driving duties in the Testing of Previous Cars Programme with Paul Aron and Ry? Hirakawa. He will also be helping the team on the driver-in-loop simulator as well.

Colapinto made his Formula One debut in the middle of the 2024 season, replacing Logan Sargeant at Williams at the Italian Grand Prix 2024. He scored points at the Azerbaijan race and went on to round out the season with 5 points from 9 races. He has previously raced with Van Amersfoort Racing and MP Motorsport in Formula 3, where he had a best finish of 4th in the Championship and with MP Motorsport, he finished 9th in the Championship in Formula 2 as well.

Franco Colapinto, BWT Alpine Formula One Team, commented,

“I am super excited to have the opportunity to join the BWT Alpine Formula One Team. First of all,

I want to say thank you to Williams for all their support from the moment I joined the Academy until the last race in Abu Dhabi. They turned my dream of racing in Formula One into reality, and I will always be grateful for that. Now, it is time for a new chapter, and to take on this challenge with the BWT Alpine Formula One Team is truly an honour. A huge thank you to Luca [de Meo], Flavio [Briatore] and Oliver [Oakes] for believing in me and welcoming me into the team with open arms. I cannot wait to get started and see where this journey takes us. Also, a massive thank you to all my sponsors and partners who stood by me through the challenges of the 2024 season. Your support made it all possible, and to my incredible fans in Argentina: ‘Muchas gracias!’ Your passion and encouragement mean the world to me. Let’s aim for even greater things in 2025 and beyond.”

Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor, added,

“We are very pleased to come to an agreement with Williams Racing to sign Franco Colapinto. Clearly, Franco is among the best young talents in motorsport right now. It is fair to say his appearance on the Formula One grid last year caught many, me included, by surprise and his performances have been very impressive for a rookie driver. We have an eye on our future and his signing means we have a great pool of young drivers to call upon and work with in developing the team for future success.”