The manager also denied formal contacts with Sergio “Checo” Pérez or Valtteri Bottas, although he admitted that he spoke with several pilots.
Flavio Briatore head of Alpinerecognized that the performance of the team in the 2025 season of Formula 1 was “terrible“And he admitted that the team made a” serious mistake “by focusing its resources on the development of the 2026 car and neglecting the current A525that today places it last in the Constructors Championship. In addition, he referred to the future of Franco Colapintafter what their Hard comments Friday.
The Italian leader spoke with Channel+ After classification of Nice Country GPwhere Franco Colapint ended 16 ° and Pierre Gasly 14 °. “We know that this year’s performance is very bad. We thought all were focused on 2026, but no: the others continued to develop 2025 and we don’t,” he acknowledged.
About the future of CollapintBriatore clarified that “Everything is open for 2026”And that the decision will be made in the next 10 careers. The manager also denied formal contacts with Sergio “Checo” Pérez either Valtteri BottasAlthough he admitted that he spoke with several pilots.
In parallel, he referred to the continuity of Gasly: “We are negotiating to prolong the contract. It has had a great season with the car you have.” The Frenchman adds 20 points in 2025, but was repeatedly critical of the A525.
Briatore stressed that the great challenge is the new regulations of 2026: “The car is very difficult to design, keep in the margin of weight and adjust the engine. Everything is complex.” From this Monday, Steve Nielsen He will assume as a new team leader in Estone.
The bad moment was reflected again in Zandvoort: Colapinto was outside Q1 for just 0.067 seconds, while Gasly only advanced to Q2. The race will be played this Sunday at 10 (Argentine time).
Flavio Briatore released a hard comment on Franco Colapinto: “Maybe it was not the time to be in Formula 1”
The manager compared the Pilarense with another pilot in the category and theorized about the reasons that prevented him from achieving better results. “Maybe it was not time to be in F1”he launched.
“Colapint has the same problem as Kimi (Antonelli) in Mercedes: there is too much pressure. We have to take it into account. They are human beings, they are practically children”considered Briatore.
“Sometimes it is our mistake to underestimate the pilot’s human part. We are always looking at the stopwatch. I might miss something there in the pilot’s management. Maybe it was not the right time to have Franco in Formula 1, maybe I needed one more year to be part of Formula 1”evaluated in statements reproduced by Motorsport.
It should be remembered that Collapint He fought a car without reliability and could not be in a score zone in any of the seven played races. His best positions were two 13th place in the Monaco GP and Canada.
In this regard, Briatore assured: “I think that for a pilot it is very difficult to deal with this car. I am not happy if we look at the results, that is the important thing. He tries very hard. We try very hard with the engineering team to please him in everything, but it really is not what I expect from Collapinto.”
Source: Ambito
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