Franco Colapinto received the reality bath from Alpine in Mexico

After a first training session full of rookies in which he placed in the top ten, the Argentine pilot suffered again with the lack of performance of the A525 and finished 18th.

Only a miracle can bring joy to Alpine in the final stretch of the 76th Formula 1 season. A green dog like the 2024 San Pablo GP, when the rain mixed the deck and they took an unexpected 2-3. These days, not even the universal flood seems to be able to provide any breath of hope in Enstone to be competitive. The present is not unthinkable: last year’s weak performance worsened in 2025 due to Flavio Briatore’s determination to put all his effort into the new car that will arrive with the change in regulations next season. Without updates or developments, the A525’s performance was in free fall. The Italian, the team’s boss, recognized the mistake in the Netherlands because he thought the rest of the teams would follow the same path. He made a mistake and today his team is comfortably sailing at the bottom of the table. The second practice of the Mexico City GP, the 20th round of the season, was another example of the car’s chronic weakness: Franco Colapinto was 18th and his teammate Pierre Gasly, 20th.

The ninth place finish that the Argentine signed in the first test was a mirage. A totally unusual round that featured a record nine rookies on the track because the teams have to comply with the rookie regulations in the first free practice. Franco overtook eight of the inexperienced riders (Arvid Lindblad was ahead) and three starters, two of them who had not used the soft compound (Alex Albon and Isack Hadjar). But when the second practice arrived and the headlines came out, Alpine’s reality was exposed.

Colapinto completed 31 turns in the second session. His program was divided into two rounds: ten turns with medium tires and the rest, with soft tires. In his first attempt with the softer compound he set 1m18s721, which would be his best time at the end of the day. At first, he was among the ten, but, of course, when the rest began to spin with the red tires, the reality hit. His position in the classifier fell until he fell to 18th place, only ahead of Alex Albon and Gasly. The Thai from Williams had managed to close two very good sets in his launched attempt, but he hit the wall with the left rear tire in the last corner and his time was not good.

Franco improved his time between practices by six tenths (he had clocked 1m19s331), but was 1s329 behind Max Verstappen, the leader. Gasly, who did not spin in the first round because he gave up his seat to Paul Aron, clocked 1m19s194 and was 473 thousandths behind the Buenos Aires native in last place. The Frenchman complained about the way his car was going: “It was the worst session of the year. “I can’t brake, I can’t turn, I’m sliding all over the place, so we’ll have to take a good look at the car tonight,” he said.

The Argentine driver was also clear with car 43 and described it as unmanageable. And this will continue until the end of the season, there will be no improvements and the inconveniences are chronic. Without a doubt, the best that Colapinto can expect between now and the end of 2025 is confirmation as the Frenchman’s teammate for the 2026 season. All roads lead to this happening before the San Pablo GP. Sportingly, there will be little you can get out of the A525, the weakest car in the category and which gave Franco another reality check in Mexico City.