{"id":378854,"date":"2025-08-27T23:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T23:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378854\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T23:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T23:28:12","slug":"bernie-ecclestone-thinks-alpines-option-to-replace-franco-colapinto-has-never-shown-he-should-be-in-f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378854\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Ecclestone thinks Alpine\u2019s option to replace Franco Colapinto has \u2018never\u2019 shown he should be in F1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bernie Ecclestone has no idea what a driver on Alpine\u2019s radar to potentially replace Franco Colapinto could give any Formula 1 team if they obtained a seat on the grid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions continue to linger about the Enstone outfit\u2019s driver line-up, not only for the 2026 F1 season<\/a> but also the remainder of the current campaign. Alpine<\/a> are letting Colapinto<\/a> race on entering the final 10 rounds of the year, yet the 22-year-old is on a race-by-race contract.<\/p>\n

Alpine initially confirmed Colapinto for just five rounds when he replaced Jack Doohan back in May. The Argentine has since struggled to justify his promotion from a reserve driver role to a race seat. Alpine are still waiting to see Colapinto score his first point racing their A525.<\/p>\n

Executive adviser Flavio Briatore<\/a> has even been exploring the F1 driver market<\/a> to find a star who could take over if Alpine decide to drop Colapinto. But they have just seen two targets slip off the board, with Cadillac confirming their signings of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FrancoPhoto by Kym Illman\/Getty ImagesBernie Ecclestone does not know what Mick Schumacher can offer any F1 team<\/strong><\/p>\n

Briatore has also looked for other options, though, including Alpine potentially giving Mick Schumacher<\/a> his second chance on the grid by replacing Colapinto. According to Ran<\/a>, taking over the A525 is now Schumacher\u2019s final chance to return to the F1 grid in 2025 or in 2026.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Who is Mick Schumacher? All to know about Michael Schumacher\u2019s son<\/a><\/p>\n\nTEAM<\/strong><\/td>\nDRIVER 1<\/strong><\/td>\nDRIVER 2<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAlpine<\/td>\nPierre Gasly<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAston Martin<\/td>\nFernando Alonso<\/td>\nLance Stroll<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAudi<\/td>\nGabriel Bortoleto<\/td>\nNico Hulkenberg<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCadillac<\/td>\nValtteri Bottas<\/td>\nSergio Perez<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFerrari<\/td>\nCharles Leclerc<\/td>\nLewis Hamilton<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHaas<\/td>\nEsteban Ocon<\/td>\nOliver Bearman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMcLaren<\/td>\nLando Norris<\/td>\nOscar Piastri<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMercedes<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRacing Bulls<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRed Bull Racing<\/td>\nMax Verstappen<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWilliams<\/td>\nAlex Albon<\/td>\nCarlos Sainz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

2026 confirmed F1 drivers<\/p>\n

Alpine have been considering Schumacher as a replacement for Colapinto<\/a> for months, with the German first appearing on the Enstone outfit\u2019s radar to take over from the Argentine in May. Colapinto\u2019s crash in qualifying on his debut at Imola saw Alpine begin to look around.<\/p>\n

Still, former F1 supremo Ecclestone<\/a> does not know what Schumacher could bring to any F1 team, despite being on Alpine\u2019s radar to potentially replace Colapinto. He feels the 26-year-old \u201cnever\u201d showed he should be in F1 with Haas, and people have forgotten what he adds.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone told sport.de<\/a>: \u201cSo much time has passed that people no longer remember what he\u2019s capable of. Why should he be able to help the team? I don\u2019t know what he could bring to the team that would be helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a good name, but can he be of any help as a driver? He\u2019s never shown that, so why should he be able to do that now? But he should still be given a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpine are Mick Schumacher\u2019s last chance to return to F1 after failing to sign for Cadillac<\/strong>\"MickPhoto by CHRISTIAN BRUNA\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Schumacher was confident about signing for Cadillac<\/a>, but that optimism was misplaced with Bottas and Perez joining the team. He might still secure a role at the American crew, though, as Cadillac view Schumacher as an ideal reserve driver<\/a> in a dual role with a drive in the WEC.<\/p>\n

The German has started to make a name for himself in the World Endurance Championship over the past few seasons. But a return to Formula 1 has remained Schumacher\u2019s goal since Haas chose against retaining him following a two-year spell with the team in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Schumacher started 43 of his 44 Grand Prix entries with Haas, but he only secured 12 points in two years. He scored four with a P8 finish in the 2022 British GP and eight with a P6 finish in the 2022 Austrian GP. Schumacher retired from five races, and he also did not start one.<\/p>\n

But after spending 2023 as Mercedes\u2019 reserve driver, Schumacher joined Alpine\u2019s WEC team in 2024. The son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher has taken four podiums in the WEC so far, including helping to P3 finishes at Imola and Spa during the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bernie Ecclestone has no idea what a driver on Alpine\u2019s radar to potentially replace Franco Colapinto could give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4289,90226,4199,707,101951,4200,4292,38013,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-378854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-alpine","9":"tag-bernie-ecclestone","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula-1-driver-market","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-franco-colapinto","15":"tag-mick-schumacher","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115103328504474428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}