BWT Alpine has settled its Formula One driver line-up for the 2027 season, with Franco Colapinto staying on next to Pierre Gasly. It will be a third campaign together for the pair, who have carried the Enstone squad to sixth in this year’s Constructors’ Championship. The announcement lands as the team heads to Monza with an upgraded A526 package.

Alpine has ended speculation over its 2027 line-up by keeping Franco Colapinto in the second seat alongside Pierre Gasly. The team says the decision finalises its driver roster for the 2027 FIA Formula One World Championship, extending a pairing that has been together since the Argentinian’s mid-season debut in 2025.

A breakout year for Colapinto

Colapinto has scored 19 world championship points so far in 2026, finishing in the points in six of the season’s opening 12 Grands Prix. A tenth place in China was followed by seventh in Miami in May — at the time a career best — before he went two better a fortnight later with sixth in Montréal.

The team describes that Canadian drive as a marker of the 23-year-old’s maturity and racecraft, and says he has settled at the Enstone factory to the point where he regards it as his home in the sport. He arrives at Monza with 38 Grand Prix starts to his name.

Stability as the strategy

Alpine frames the continuity as part of a wider push for stability. Gasly, one of the more experienced drivers on the current grid, committed his own future to the team almost exactly a year ago in the run-up to the same Italian Grand Prix weekend — making this a neat piece of symmetry for the squad’s communications team.

On track, the pairing and what the team calls an improved chassis and power unit package have lifted Alpine to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship after the first half of 2026, with both cars scoring at four rounds: China, Canada, Barcelona and Great Britain.

“We are very happy to confirm our driver line-up for 2027 with Franco staying as a race driver alongside Pierre. For me, having consistency is very important,” said Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore. “We have seen Franco truly grow and mature into a great driver this year. His results in Miami and Montréal especially confirmed what I already knew: Franco belongs in Formula One and he belongs at this team.”

Briatore was careful to keep expectations anchored to the machinery rather than the line-up, calling the drivers “an important piece of the puzzle” while stressing that “the most significant we have to get right is designing and building a fast race car which absolutely remains our number one priority.”

What Colapinto says

Colapinto pointed to the team’s year-on-year progress as a reason to stay. “I am very pleased to remain with this team in 2027. I feel very happy and very settled here and it’s been even better that we have made significant progress this year compared to last,” he said.

“Our long-term goals are obvious – to compete and win – and I am grateful to the team, Flavio and Steve, for the trust placed in me to be one of its drivers going into the future.”

What it means

For Alpine, locking both seats early removes one variable from a rebuild that has already seen significant change at management level under Briatore and Managing Director Steve Nielsen. The Enstone operation, which has raced as Benetton, Renault and Lotus since 1992 and counts seven world titles in its history, is currently mid-table rather than in title contention — and the team is explicit that the car, not the driver pairing, is the limiting factor.

For Colapinto, the deal converts a promising 2026 into a settled medium-term platform, something few drivers outside the top teams currently enjoy.

The confirmed line-up takes effect for the 2027 season. Both drivers are in action next at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Alpine will run the upgraded A526 package.

Facts: Alpine 2027 F1 line-up

  • Drivers for 2027: Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto
  • Third season together as team-mates
  • Colapinto’s 2026 tally so far: 19 points from 12 races
  • Best result of 2026: sixth, Canadian Grand Prix
  • Colapinto’s career starts: 38
  • Constructors’ Championship position: sixth
  • Car: Alpine A526, built at Enstone, Oxfordshire

Source: media.alpinecars.com