F1: Alpine to keep Franco Colapinto for 2027 season

Alpine have re-signed Franco Colapinto for the 2027 season.

The move comes midway through a campaign in which the 23-year-old Argentine secured a career-best sixth-place finish at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Colapinto will continue alongside Alpine's lead driver, Frenchman Pierre Gasly, next year.

Alpine executive director Flavio Briatore said: "We have seen Franco truly grow into a great driver this year.

"His results in Miami [where he was seventh] and Montreal especially confirmed what I already knew - that Franco belongs in F1 and he belongs at this team. Having consistency is important.

"We are now settled from a driver point of view and, while this is an important piece of the puzzle, the most significant thing we have to get right is designing and building a fast race car, which absolutely remains our number-one priority."

Colapinto said: "I feel very happy and settled here and it's been even better that we have made significant progress this year compared with last."

Alpine finished last in 2025 but are sixth after 12 races this year, with their best result a podium finish for Gasly in Monaco, although that is subject to a challenge from McLaren.

The appeal hearing was held on Tuesday and McLaren were told to expect a verdict within a couple of weeks.

Alpine's increased competitiveness has been caused by two significant decisions made last year.

They effectively abandoned their 2025 car to enable them to focus fully on the design for the new chassis for this year's new engine rules.

And parent company Renault cancelled its F1 engine programme after 2025 and Alpine have switched to customer Mercedes engines this season.

Colapinto did a half-season for Williams in 2024, after they dropped American Logan Sergeant, and was then signed by Alpine as reserve driver for 2025 - with funding from Latin American sponsors influential in the decision.

He took over from Jack Doohan after the Australian was demoted from a race seat after the first six races of last year.