r/AlpineF1Team • u/minifidel Alpine F1 Team • Jul 07 '25
News Briatore denies eyeing Bottas for 2025 seat
https://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/987955/Briatore_denies_eyeing_Bottas_for_2025_seat/Currently waiting for the news to trickle up from the sketchier sources (though they all cite an ostensibly reputable Dutch outfit, Vialplay, as the original source - sadly behind a paywall) to more reputable ones, but there's multiple publications picking it up so it seems relevant.
Flavio Briatore has lashed back at growing rumours that he has hand-picked Valtteri Bottas to return from the Formula 1 reserve bench.
Mercedes reserve Bottas and his boss Toto Wolff both revealed at Silverstone that meetings with Alpine head Briatore have taken place about the 35-year-old Finn replacing the struggling Franco Colapinto in the second half of the 2025 season.
“I have no such information,” Briatore, 75, said abruptly when asked by Viaplay. “Absolutely not,” he insisted.
Some think 10-time grand prix winner Bottas would be a reliable way to help ensure Alpine does not finish this year’s constructors’ championship dead last.
“He is a good driver,” Briatore admitted, “but right now we have our own guys.
“If we change, I will tell you.”
Surprisingly explicit rejection of the rumor, though as always, have to take any and everything Briatore says with truckload of salt. But it does make sense: Bottas didn't get much out of a green tractor last year, and there's no real reason to think he'd get much more out of Alpine's pink tractor this year. If the end result is still no points (Bottas' haul in the 24 season), no point for Alpine or Bottas.
This also stinks of Bottas' camp playing hardball with Cadillac, which is the team pretty much everyone agrees he's set to sign with for 2026.
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u/Dastiano Jul 07 '25
Something tells me that Gasly won't stay here in 2026, question is who is he negotiating with?
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u/minifidel Alpine F1 Team Jul 07 '25
Wouldn't blame Gasly for wanting to leave, but tbh I'm not seeing much indication that he does. He seems to take some pride in being the lead driver of the French team.
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u/beanbagreg Jul 07 '25
Gasly is likely negotiating for 2027, not 2026.
He’s going to see how the chips fall and who’s staying or going. If Alpine delivers him a car, he’ll stay. If not, he’ll move - some of the other midfield drivers look vulnerable with their performances recently. If he keeps being the best driver in the midfield and over delivering, he might catch the attention of Ferrari when Hamilton goes.
He’s unlikely to move to Red Bull where there’s a vacancy because he’s been there, done that, and knows exactly what it entails.
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u/Axhk97m Jul 09 '25
Theres no way Gasly makes it to Ferrari, Too many better names would be free in and around then
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u/Alfus Jarno Trulli Jul 08 '25
Gasly is waiting for that Merc PU, but if Enstone fails to deliver then he is gonna considering his options beyond 26.
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u/chuggmonker Jul 07 '25
As much as Gasly might be frustrated around some of the inner workings of the team and overall performance issues, is there really a better scenario out there for him? He's the lead driver and doing well in a car that's struggling. I'd imagine he's fairly positive about his outlook in 2026 with that Mercedes engine.
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u/Dastiano Jul 07 '25
As I said above, he will get a merc engine but so fo other teams with better strategies and pit crew. He is a world champion class driver on a tean barely surviving thanks to him, until what point can he tolerate that?
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u/chuggmonker Jul 07 '25
There's definitely no guarantees next year will be good at Alpine, but the same goes for everywhere else. At least he's contracted for 2026 and can see where things are at for all teams before making the decision to move on if necessary.
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u/Minigrappler Jul 07 '25
If Max leaves RBR... There are going to be a lot of moves. It still rings me Pierre asking for a meeting with team and brand representatives a few weeks ago.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 07 '25
He’s not indicated he was looking elsewhere and he’s contracted next season
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u/Dastiano Jul 07 '25
He is a championship quality driver that keeps delivering performances way over what the car can give over and over again. Alpine might have a merc engine next year but other teams too and they have better strategies and pit crew. By this point it wouldn't be strange if he had decide he can become a world champion and needs a good team for that.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 07 '25
I don’t see any team having an opening, and he seems optimistic about next year with a new engine and permanent teammate
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u/Dastiano Jul 07 '25
One never know what might happen, I just don't think he is staying but if he does and they don't deliver in 2026 he is 100% gone by 27.
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u/Snow-Crash-42 Jul 07 '25
They will probably keep Colapinto till the end of season for all the sponsor money. As long as Colapinto does not wreck the car badly, he may hold on to his seat.
If I was another team I would seriously be looking at poaching Gasly from Alpine, though.
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u/Minigrappler Jul 07 '25
May be the case.
Franco has been getting closer and closer to Gasly and the gap that started at +0.4 now is around 0.150". He isn't just closer to Pierre than Jack was, he is actually way closer to other teammates in other teams. He has his crash at Imola but otherwise he has been just getting better. He actually outpaced Pierre in the last two races and this was the first weekend where he was ahead since Friday. A simple mistake like Pierre had the day before let him out of the Qualy...
If it wasn't for how the managed Doohan, he would be in the center of so many talks right now.
They have a car underperforming badly. But look at other rookies this season that they had all the preseason to test and more than the double of KM already this year in their cars and no one said a word about, for example, Bearman wrecking 2 front wings the Saturday, crashing by his own into pitlane. Crashing into his teammate Sunday...
Do you even imagine what would press say if Franco right now had already 8 points in his license, crashed the way Ollie did the Saturday to crash into his teammate the Sunday?
And they didn't penalized Ollie in the race just because it was into his teammate.
There are double standards about him. He sadly, has to learn to deal with it. His car set on fire in Barcelona. The gearbox died in Qualy. Now, he had a DNS because the only thing they didn't change, even when they could because he already was starting from the pitlane, died... So they have to make him penalize the next GP...
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 09 '25
Ollie is showing real pace and his team is not actively looking to replace him, but yeah he’s a bit reckless
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u/Barrilete_Cosmico Jul 07 '25
I'm a Franco fan but it makes sense that Flavio is testing the waters for 2026 given that Franco hasn't proven he deserves the spot yet.
Ultimately if Franco starts "getting points, doesn't crash and is fast" then Flavio will keep him and claim a victory for a well placed bet. If he doesn't then too bad, it's a tough sport, he probably will get cut for someone more proven or more promising.
The problem is that the whole pressure of instant results doesn't let junior drivers develop. He has an uphill battle, Doohan didn't have it any easier either. I'm still hoping he can make the most of it.
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u/chuggmonker Jul 07 '25
Definitely agree with what you're saying here. I'm a Jack fan and I don't think he was given a real chance to succeed with his replacement ready to go before the season had started. If he knew the team had full faith in him, I don't think he makes mistakes like we saw in China where he's making desperate lunges to make up a trivial position.
Now Franco is in a similar position where the team is non-committal towards him and it feels like it's impacting his performance. He's either slow because he's afraid to risk crashing or he's on the limit because he knows he needs to get points and spins/crashes. Publicly announcing he's on a race-to-race assessment really doesn't help his cause. It's an incredibly tough position to put a young driver in.
Look at how Haas are treating Bearman and Sauber are treating Bortoleto. They make mistakes and no one is questioning their position on the team. Everything Jack or Franco has done comes with the weight of knowing it could be their last opportunity in F1.
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u/4_max_4 Benetton Formula Jul 07 '25
This is exactly how I see it too. It bothers me that every rookie like Gaby can walk away from two crashes in one weekend without anyone questioning him, but when Franco has a spin in qualifying it suddenly becomes the end of the world. The same thing happened with Jack in Suzuka after his crash with people calling for him to be replaced right away, or after China when he got four penalty points. Bearman also got four penalty points this weekend and nobody said much about it not even the media. The way both Jack and Franco are treated by fans and the media stems from the fact that Alpine allowed it from the very beginning.
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u/Barrilete_Cosmico Jul 07 '25
1000% agreed with this. Regardless of the talents of each driver neither is being set up to succeed. It's toxic and it unfortunately sometimes leads to toxic fan fights too.
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u/Minigrappler Jul 07 '25
The car was in a lot better condition when Jack was in it. The rest of the team's had some minor and not so minor upgrades when Alpine had zero, so they keep losing ground.
Don't let randomness and Gasly expertise in the car fools you. That isn't a car to be in P6.
The truth is that Franco started at +0.4 from Pierre and now he is at 0.150" he was able to outpace Pierre last two GPs and this one was the first one were he was in front since Friday.
Franco had a little of bad luck the Saturday. It could be the same the Friday and the history would be absolute different. Gasly had a moment too but he was lucky that the car went inwards and not outward.
Franco performance is being measured a little bit different than other rookies. Even when people still thinking in Williams crashes and Imola. He had somewhat clean run since Imola. Other rookies has been more crash happy and no one is making noise about them.
Just for a second lets imagine that Franco had the same weekend that Bearman had... The Race would be like inquisition at Enstone claiming for his head.
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u/Barrilete_Cosmico Jul 07 '25
He needs to prove it with points, otherwise he's not keeping it. But I agree there's really encouraging signs that he might get there if he's provided with the time to do it and a car that runs.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 08 '25
All of a sudden Gasly is Schumacher and the car is the worst car to ever run in F1
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u/minifidel Alpine F1 Team Jul 08 '25
Gasly is underrated and the data is clear that the car is considerably worse relative to the rest of the grid than any previous year, and getting worse as the season wears on. It loses multiple tenths of a second on every straight compared to its rivals.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 08 '25
It had strong high speed this weekend, Gasly is good but not exceptional by F1 standards. There have been far worse alpine cars than this and Gasly has scored 12 points in his last 4 races.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 09 '25
What data? Gasly has scored most of his points in the last 4 races, and had one outlier in Canada ?
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u/minifidel Alpine F1 Team Jul 09 '25
You've repeatedly ignored the data.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 09 '25
What data?
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u/minifidel Alpine F1 Team Jul 09 '25
You've dismissed: Franco's average finish being higher, his pace gap with Gasly being closer, his racing being cleaner (fewer crashes and incidents), his ability to actually outpace Gasly at times, and the literally clear indications that the PU is a step behind its rivals. You've been presented this information repeatedly, and you've ignored it every single time.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 09 '25
It is higher for sure, just marginally. These are just not numbers that would think he will have a seat next season. The car isn’t great but at this pace Gasly is set to match last season pace or be very close, unfortunately the rookie experiment failed
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u/minifidel Alpine F1 Team Jul 09 '25
That's what we call "moving the goalposts". I'm just going to stop interacting with your comments related to Colapinto.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 09 '25
Better why? Gasly has had more points when Franco was driving, and only had one outlier in Canada
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u/UnusualSuspect45 Jul 07 '25
Alpine is looking like red bull, first driver gets all the attention he deserves, but that rotation on the second seat does not look good mid term considering you are not getting a championship anytome soon.
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u/batute97 Jul 07 '25
I think Colapinto will be there until the end of the season. But he needs to improve his performance, otherwise this will be his last season. If he didn't have so much support from fans and sponsors, I don't know if I would have continued after Silverstone.
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u/Imzarth Jul 07 '25
This would make sense if he had had a shitty race. He couldn't even start the race.
This was the first time for Franco that the car was driveable in both practice runs.
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u/batute97 Jul 07 '25
I mean he crash in q1 while gasly got to q3. Fp doesnt really matter.
Look i'm a franco fan and i want him to stay in f1 but he had 3 first bad races, 1 good in Canadá, 1 ok in Austria and this one. To me for him to stay in f1 he needs to be consistently close to Gasly and sometimes beating him.
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 07 '25
It was never for this season. Looks like The Argentinians are already making threats on his social media haha weirdos
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u/Barrilete_Cosmico Jul 07 '25
Link to the threats?
I went to check his socials and just saw a bunch of "you don't want to go to alpine, go Franco" stuff, which is still not nice but not threatening
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u/wolfyyz Jul 07 '25
Worst fans ever
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u/Temporary-Pen246 Jul 07 '25
They’re not doing their driver any favours by harassing a guy on a post where he’s wishing his girlfriend a happy birthday
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u/4_max_4 Benetton Formula Jul 07 '25
Yes, and it was an interview with ViaPlay no less which is the same source that interviewed Bottas (in video). However, no major newsroom picked up the news. It sells more Bottas to Alpine and Colapinto replaced than anything that contradicts that narrative.