Colapinto grateful for Alpine ‘trust’ amid contract extension as he assesses Monza chances with upgrades

Franco Colapinto has praised the “trust” from Alpine after agreeing a contract extension with the team, ahead of a weekend in which the Argentinian is hoping an upgrade package can give the Enstone-based outfit an advantage over their rivals.

Another piece of the 2027 driver market fell into place when it was recently confirmed that Colapinto will continue to race for the squad next season, forming an unchanged line-up alongside Pierre Gasly.

It comes after a solid start to the campaign for Colapinto, who has scored 19 points and sits in P12 of the Drivers’ Championship.

“I’m very pleased, very happy,” the 23-year-old said of the news during Thursday’s media day at the Italian Grand Prix. “I’m very excited for what's coming and to continue this journey with the team.

“I'm very grateful for the opportunities this last year, and we grew up a lot together, a big family now. We did a lot of steps together as a team, improving the car in many areas, improving the performance of everyone in the team. I’m happy and looking forward to keep it going.”

Colapinto went on to express his gratitude for the opportunity that he was handed by Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore and “the trust since the start”, adding that he is “very happy with the effort of the team, how we improved lately and the steps that we’ve made together as a family”.

The announcement comes as the driver from Buenos Aires prepares to race with an upgrade package in Monza, with the new parts set to go on both Alpine cars after Gasly ran with them last time out in Zandvoort.

“I think Monza is always a track I enjoy driving, aside of having the upgrade or not,” said Colapinto. “With it, I think it's going to be good. Hopefully it's a good track for us – we'll see how it looks on Friday.

“It’s going to be important to keep working and trying to extra everything out of the car in Qualifying.”

Scoring points in the Netherlands has helped Alpine to move closer to Racing Bulls in the battle for P5 of the Teams’ Championship, with the gap now standing at just three points.

“We are really close,” Colapinto conceded. “With the last upgrade we did a very good step in terms of performance and we are closer to them, which was our goal. We were hoping to do a big step and it happened, and the upgrade is working well, but we need to keep working and putting everything together to be in front of them.

“They are fast, Audi is fast as well. They are bringing I think an upgrade here with the rear wing, so they will be a bit faster, but we have trust in the package we have now and hopefully we can extract everything and be in front.”