Colapinto challenged to keep up Miami level after career-best P7

Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore has challenged Franco Colapinto to repeat the level of performance that led to his career-best finish of seventh place in the Miami Grand Prix.

Colapinto had endured an inconsistent opening three rounds of the 2026 season as he scored points in China but struggled to match Pierre Gasly in Australia and Japan. Using a different chassis in Miami – where his upgraded car was also lacking a new rear wing, as only one was available in time for the race weekend – Colapinto was competitive throughout and finished eighth on the road before being promoted to seventh by a post-race penalty to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

“Franco has rounded off a really good week where he has performed at the level we expect him to at every race weekend,” Briatore said. “The car is competitive and it is these performances we need week in, week out from both drivers and the entire team for us to meet our objectives.

“We are P5 in the constructors' championship and we are looking forwards and not backwards on what we can achieve. We have a lot to review in the two weeks before Canada, especially in regards to some of the new items on the car which might not have given Pierre the performance uplift we expected.”

On top of the headline result, Colapinto believes Miami was his best weekend in F1 so far in the way the whole three days played out.

“I think since I got to F1 it’s been my most perfect weekend,” Colapinto said. “I am very happy with the weekend – it’s been executed really well. I think I maximized every session and we scored strong points. So it’s been a weekend for all of us to be really proud of, and we will try to get better in Canada.”

The Argentinean was keen to thank Alpine for the work done before Miami, as he feels it allowed him to hit the ground running after the April break.

“The team did a very big effort to bring new parts for the cars, bring upgrades, new chassis," he said. "It's been very hectic in the factory in this break, but very useful and very proud to have got that performance back that we need and to show the speed of the car this weekend has been very positive.

“When you have the pace, suddenly everything becomes much easier and not being on the back foot. It's been much better this weekend and felt very strong.

“I feel very similar [in the car] to be honest – on my side, not much changed. I’m just very grateful to the team for all the new bits, the upgrades, the new wings, the new chassis that came – it’s all been very helpful and I think that really helped me to find my feet a bit better and find more pace.”