Briatore on Alpine second seat: It's between Colapinto and Aron

Briatore has a bit of an issue with his second driver choice, as Colapinto, who he hoped would perform better than Jack Doohan, only managed to disappoint him and break some cars.

Colapinto made his Formula 1 debut with Williams in the 2024 Italian Grand Prix, replacing Logan Sargeant and impressing for a few races before ending the season with the series of errors and accidents.

And after Doohan completed six unsuccessful races with Alpine in 2025, the Argentine was drafted to replace him, but he has not been any better, if not even worse.

Briatore has recently admitted that bringing Colapinto into F1 might have been premature, but now he has to decide who will be Gasly's teammate in 2026.

Speaking to The Race over the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, Briatore was asked about his driver options; he responded: "It’s between Franco and Paul.

“Paul is a very nice guy, a very quick driver as well. And I need to understand what is the best for the team, you know?”

The Alpine Executive Advisor, who is currently also handling the Team Principal role since Oliver Oakes resigned, was asked whether any management ties or personal preferences might govern his decision.

"I mean, I don’t have any interest with anybody," he claimed. "Before the people were driving me mad [by complaining] because I was managing 50% of the drivers [on the grid]. Now, I don’t manage anybody.

"I don’t care. I don’t have any interest," he insisted. "My only interest is to try to take in the team the best driver available and do the best job with us.

"It is as simple as that. I need another one or two races to see, but honestly today I don’t know [which one]," he revealed.

Briatore, who has overseen some of the greatest talents in F1 history. He signed Michael Schumacher at Benetton back in 1991 after the German race with Jordan at that year's Belgian Grand Prix. The German went on to win two titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995.

Fernando Alonso is another talent. Briatore spotted him and placed him at Minardi in 2001 and then signed him for Renault in 2003. The Spaniard went on to win the 2005 and 2006 F1 Titles under the Italian's watch, who remained as his confidante and advisor for the remainder of his career.

But Briatore insisted that there are no special talents that he can consider these days; he explained: "I don’t see any other possibility. We see other ones, but we don’t feel it [anything special]—because the good guys go ‘boom’.

“I remember when Schumi was in Group C [sportscars] with Sauber, he won every race… GP2 was the same. [Lewis] Hamilton was bam, bam, bam, bam. Fernando was driving Formula 3000 or whatever, and he was winning every race.

"I remember testing Fernando. I put Fernando in Minardi, and Giancarlo [Minardi, team founder] called me and said: ‘I have never seen stuff like that’," the 75-year-old concluded.

Aron has taken part in three FP1 sessions in 2025, one with Alpine and two with Sauber. He finished the 2024 Formula 2 Championship in third.