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Thoughts on Jack Doohan might not be making his Formula 1 debut for Alpine next year as they’re after Argentine driver Franco Colapinto from Williams

by Sports Benches

I’ve seen Alpine making enough mistakes already but this might not be the last one just yet as they’re sreportedly on the lookout for a bit more established driver ahead of next season. Now wait for it but Alpine is after Argentine Franco Colapinto to replace the already announced rookie Jack Doohan to partner Pierre Gasly.

First of all, great job to Franco on what has been a stunning immediate impact since he recently replaced the underperforming Logan Sargeant 1-2 months ago for Williams. As we all know though, Williams are currently stuck with three good drivers with two cars going into next year unless one of them goes out. 

So far way before the eventual axing of Sargeant, Carlos Sainz Jr. has already signed there for a multi-year contract from Ferrari while Alex Albion also extended his deal there earlier this year.

And also the last remaining F1 seat over at Sauber which would soon be under Audi’s works team for 2026 has just been taken yesterday by Brazilian Gabriel Borteleto – which will effective end the long-running career of Valtteri Bottas from Finland.

Likewise with the engine, they don’t look to be so serious when it comes to their driver academy program – having fumbled this over and over again like it was two years ago with now McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. It would be a bit of surprise if Doohan does not get the chance to make his Formula 1 debut just because they saw a better driver than him in Franco Colapinto. Also, if they want him right now, then they would need to pay $20 million to get him out from Williams – that’s a lot of money there without them thinking where they want to go from here.

Again, they should improve their car first and most importantly their engine – even if they do use Mercedes engines at some point. But despite their huge Brazilian Grand Prix lucky break from last weekend where both cars finished 2nd & 3rd, here we go again to see Alpine make yet another big change in none other than Franco instead of Jack – if that turns out to be true.

Hoping I’m wrong though that appears to have so little legs & also hoping that Franco will end up within the Red Bull teams too rather than having to sit out for one year – either at the main squad to replace Sergio Perez or even at the sister Visa CashApp RB squad alongside Kiwi Liam Lawson will do it, with Yuki Tusnoda getting the chance at their senior squad with the current 3 x champ (soon to be four if he can hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris in the coming weeks) Max Verstappen.

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Motorsport

What if Alpine F1 Team via Renault kept their engines but have Dallara take over its chassis contract for 2026 in Formula One like in F2/3?

by Sports Benches

Okay, there’s no way everyone from the powers at Renault/Alpine can be swayed to change their minds, having recently decided to be a customer team one month ago that will take effect from 2026. 

Yes, no engine switch announcement just yet but they’re still widely expected to use Mercedes engines.

It’s a shame after Renault made their own Formula 1 engines for nearly 50 years but no secret though that their recent engine that dates back from the hybrid era from 10 years ago hasn’t reaped any championships at all – not even a few odd wins here & there was enough to justify their latest failures when comparing to Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and even Honda.

If there’s one thing Alpine could’ve saved that engine for sure and that’s when if they’d rather stop making their own chassis by luring Dallara over to prise that big chassis contract away from Haas. 

That way, Dallara would help them out with the chassis & in turn Alpine still gets to keep making engine whose 2026 version will unfortunately go unused & be put into waste behind closed doors.

What does it mean for Haas since they’re now technically tied-up with Toyota? They can always find another chassis builder to replace Dallara or get Toyota to do it while Haas can still use Ferrari engines.

There’s 1-2 already out there in the form of a Formula 2 and Formula 3 car where Dallara manages the chassis and engineering side of things while the engine is still at the heart of Mecachrome – a French engineering company who has close ties with Renault/Alpine. 

Imagine if there’s a carbon copy of this Dallara/Mecachrome F2 car being made into F1 together but used only for Alpine? 

Maybe at least that would help them improve in some way to be a decent midfield team at best if not running Top 3 in the long-run to meet their so-called 100-race plan.

Also, it would be easy enough for someone – who is so well used to driving this Formula 2 car – would go on to have an easy transition into Alpine’s F1 team if hired, with this Dallara made Formula 1 car alongside Renault’s engine in it.

Australia’s own Jack Doohan (son of 5 x 500cc world champion Mick Doohan) is a great example who had some success with the Dallara F2 car over the last 1-2 years, even though he may never have won a championship so far in his career. 

He is set to be promoted to Alpine F1’s squad ahead of their final season as a works partner for Renault next season alongside Pierre Gasly on a one-year deal, so not a lot of time. But if he impresses and gets to stick around for a second year, then surely he’d thrive big time.

If the powers at Renault see this, hope this would be worth considering if they can keep the engine but let someone else handle the chassis side of things at the hands of Dallara like they always do together in Formula 2 & 3. But in the real world, they’ll just move on as Renault might start making Formula 1 engines again if these next PU rules make sense. 

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