Franco Colapinto returns to Las Vegas, a place with painful memories
The Argentine, confirmed as Alpine’s starter for 2026, returns to the Nevada street where he suffered a very serious accident a year ago. The closing trilogy of F1 2025 begins in Sin City.
ORA year ago, Franco Colapinto suffered the biggest accident since his arrival in Formula 1. In his seventh race in the top category, the Argentine accelerated his Williams to try to reach Q3 on the fast Las Vegas street. A miscalculation, touching the inner wall when entering a curve, breaking the suspension and total destruction. Grove’s team had to retread the W46 with the few spare parts it had left and the man from Buenos Aires was able to race the next day with a lot of body pain. That impact remained in the memory and a season later, Colapinto returns to the urban area of Sin City with Alpine.
The present of the French team is known, and it is a trite topic, it is very bad. The two points that Pierre Gasly added in San Pablo (one in the srpint and another in the main race) was just a balm for the pride behind closed doors, but it will be of little use in the final tally of the Constructors’ positions.. with renewed optimism after a much more competitive performance in São Paulo, where Pierre scored two points. Steve Nielsen, director of the Enstone team, did not hide the reality: “It has been a long and, at times, exhausting season for the team, as we have combined racing with the demands of developing a completely new car for next year. This has had an impact on our efforts towards 2025 and, clearly, we are not competing in positions that justify good results. We will only know the outcome of this decision in Melbourne next year and we continue to focus much of our attention on the track this year, aiming to finish the season in the best possible way.. Although the final result seems to be tenth place in the World Championship, a reality that we accept, we will give everything to try to score more points in the next three races, as we did in San Pablo.”
The 2024 Las Vegas race came at the peak of the Alpine’s performance in another lean year. The double podium under the San Pablo deluge allowed an unexpected 2-3 that placed them among the Builders. And in the urban area of Nevada, Gasly achieved third place in classification. The race was another story and the engine problem forced the Frenchman to abandon. This year that scenario seems almost impossible. Because Alpine did not make any updates to its A525 (it is last year’s car with a name change) and rivals worked during the year. Therefore, only some miracle could put Alpine so high. It is true that the Las Vegas race is different from all of them: from the schedule to the weather. The cold changes everyone’s plans (between eight and ten degrees are announced for race time) and keeping the tires at temperature is a titanic task.
Colapinto arrives after Alpine announced his continuity as starter for 2026 in San Pablo. “The weekend in Brazil was a challenge for my side of the box, but it was positive to have a more competitive car and with options to add, as Pierre did both in the sprint and in the Grand Prix. This means that we have a lot to learn, and we hope to be able to apply it in the last three races, since it would be good to have a similar feeling behind the wheel. The weekend also had its stellar moments. It was incredible to be able to share with everyone that I will still be on the team for the 2026 season; There was no better place to announce it than in South America, and I am very grateful for the incredible reception from the Brazilian fans. I really want to start the season together next year, but first we have the last three races of this year, starting this weekend in Las Vegas,” said Franco. The closing of the World Championship will be tough: three consecutive dates. After the visit to the United States will come the trip to Qatar and the closing in Abu Dhabi.
“The circuit is, without a doubt, one of the strong points of the season, and not many drivers in history can say they’ve raced on the famous Las Vegas Strip, so it’s exciting to be back for the second year in a row. The conditions will be challenging, the drop in temperatures in the desert will undoubtedly influence our preparation. “We will try to concentrate and make the most of the weekend, as we approach the final stretch of the season,” concluded the Argentine, the only driver on the current grid who has not scored points in 2025. Will he be able to break the drought in the three remaining races?
