“Fiesta in Argentina”: Fans react as Franco Colapinto addresses his dramatic F1 comeback with Alpine

Earlier today, it was announced that Franco Colapinto would be taking over Jack Doohan's seat in the Alpine team for the next five races of the 2025 F1 season. The Argentinian driver addressed the move to the seat beside Pierre Gasly for the upcoming Grand Prixes in a video that was shared by the French team, in which he shared his excitement about coming back to the grid this year, as well as addressing the coincidence that the first race he ran last year was Monza in Italy, and the first race he's running this year is Imola, also in Italy.

The 21-year-old driver had competed in nine races in the 2024 season for the Williams team, scoring points finishes in two of the events he started in, which took place in Baku and Austin.

The Alpine team shared the video featuring their promoted driver on their X account earlier today, with the caption:

"“I cannot wait to get started.” Looking forward to next weekend in Imola 🇮🇹"

Fans of Colapinto took to the replies section of the post, specifically the supporters from his home country of Argentina, who flooded the comments section with Spanish responses to the news.

"FIESTA IN ARGENTINA 🇦🇷❤️ " they wrote.

"Vamos, vamos, vamos!!!! Thanks Alpine for this chance. Let’s do this FC43!!!! 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷," a fan wrote.

"How long the wait was, come on baby!!!" another said.

"THEY RELEASED THE BEAST," a fan stated.

"Come On Franco. 45 millions supporters!" another commented.

Apart from the supportive words for the new Alpine driver from the F1 fans of his home country, the comments section was also filled with GIFs celebrating Franco Colapinto's promotion.

Franco Colapinto's first time driving alongside his teammate Pierre Gasly will happen on the weekend of May 16th to 18th, when the grid heads to Italy for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

---

Alpine team boss shares reason behind Franco Colapinto's promotion

Franco Colapinto and Flavio Briatore speak in the Alpine Hospitality Suite during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia on March 14, 2025 - Source: Getty

Flavio Briatore, who just became the team principal for the Alpine outfit with the resignation of Oliver Oakes, shared the reasoning behind having Franco Colapinto move up into Jack Doohan's seat for the next five races of the season.

Briatore said they have looked at the opening races of the season, where Doohan has failed to bring home any points for the team, as well as seeing that the team has grown a lot in the last year, that it was time for a change. He said:

"Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races," Briatore said. "With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up." [via Motorsport.com]

Currently, Alpine only has seven points in their battle for the Constructors' championship, all coming from the efforts of Pierre Gasly, who scored points in Bahrain and Miami.