Briatore says Colapinto still has full support

Flavio Briatore has backtracked on recent remarks suggesting dissatisfaction with Alpine rookie Franco Colapinto.

Briatore, who recently replaced Jack Doohan with Colapinto for at least five races, previously raised eyebrows by openly criticising the 21-year-old Argentine driver following a difficult start to his debut campaign.

After crashes and disappointing results at Imola and Monaco, Briatore didn’t hold back. "He crashed right away on the first race weekend," he said. "If I was to say I was happy, that would be a lie."

However, ahead of the Spanish GP in Barcelona, the Alpine advisor urged patience.

"We need to wait one second to judge Franco," he told reporters. "We’ll see. We’ll see this race. This is the first real race of Franco."

Colapinto’s Saturday in Barcelona wasn’t encouraging - he qualified second-last, while teammate Pierre Gasly reached Q3 and later finished eighth in the race. Colapinto ended up 15th.

Despite the ongoing gap in performance, Briatore sounded more supportive ahead of Colapinto’s next appearance this weekend in Canada.

"Both Pierre and Franco are working hard with the engineers to push the team forward," he said. "They have my full support.

"Franco is still adapting. I am happy with how both drivers and the team are applying themselves to get out of a tough situation."

Several names continue to be linked to Alpine’s 2026 seat, including Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Mick Schumacher and even George Russell. But Briatore has made clear that Colapinto’s future depends only on performance.

"If Colapinto is performing, he's driving the car," he said. "If not, we’ll see. "2025 is a year we need to prepare ourselves for 2026. So whatever experiment I need doing, we’re doing. "I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see. We’re only looking at the performance - nothing else."