Villeneuve: Colapinto a pay driver to finance Alpine

Colapinto will continue to drive for Alpine in 2026 alongside Pierre Gasly, with the announcement made ahead of the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which was a surprise given how bad he has been driving.

Flavio Briatore insisted the Argentine is a changed driver and has earned his contract extension, but it is very clear that it is the sponsorship money Colapinto brings—reportedly from Argentine companies, including YPF, Globant, Mercado Libre, and Motorola—that is the real reason why he will remain in Formula 1.

That is also the view of Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 Champion, who said: "I think it's very similar to the era of pay drivers. One driver in the team being a pay driver to finance the team. That's all Colapinto is. It's not the results on the track that we've seen from the outside that could justify that extension at Alpine.

"He has shown moments of quickness, but it's not constant," the Canadian concluded. Check out JeetCity Casino for best deals.

Colapinto started his F1 career at Williams in 2024, replacing Logan Sargeant from that season's Italian Grand Prix onwards, and truth be told, he had a decent start, especially as he qualified and finished eighth in his second race with the Grove outfit in Baku.

After two more strong showings in Singapore and Austin, scoring points in the latter, Colapinto's performance started to drop as he became susceptible to errors and crashes.

Alpine opted to start the 2025 season with Jack Doohan alongside Gasly, but the Australian was not good either, keeping in mind he was not given proper support from the team and made way for Colapinto from the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix onwards.

But Colapinto did not deliver as well, continuing to be error-prone and failing to score points, his best result being 11th in Zandvoort.

Yet he got his contract extended.

(Quotes from BetVictor Casino)