Insider reveals worrying details about Franco Colapinto's private Alpine test

Renowned F1 insider Karun Chandhok shared a worrying detail about Franco Colapinto's Alpine test ahead of his debut for the team in the Emilia Romagna GP. Alpine replaced Jack Doohan and called up its reserve driver, Colapinto, to race in the next five races. But as per Chandhok's update, Colapinto's private Alpine test did not go well.

After the conclusion of the Miami GP, Alpine decided to drop Doohan and bring in Colapinto to race alongside Pierre Gasly. Colapinto, who already had experience of racing in F1 with Williams, is set to return to the sport after a short hiatus.

As Alpine is all set to start with the Argentine driver, his private test with the team reportedly didn't go too well. According to well-known F1 expert and former driver, Karun Chandhok, Colapinto apparently had a shunt.

“That’s right. They tested at Qatar and Monza. I think he had a shunt, or an off, in those,” Chandhok said, as per Crash.net. "Colapinto is a good driver but we only saw a small snapshot. It’s hard to judge in that small window."

The internal situation at Alpine has been very tense over the last few weeks as the French team has had two major overhauls within. Firstly, it swapped Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto. Secondly, the team parted ways with team principal Oliver Oakes, and put Flavio Briatore in charge.

Briatore, who served as an advisor to the Enstone-based team, took up the role of the team principal, and this raised eyebrows because of his controversial past. Briatore was involved in the infamous Crashgate scandal at Renault back in 2008 when the team deliberately crashed Nelson Piquet Jr. into the wall, and helped Fernando Alonso win the race.

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F1 expert shared reminder about Franco Colapinto's expensive Williams days

Karun Chandhok, in his latest interview, also shed light into Franco Colapinto's time at Williams. The Argentine driver, who seems to be one of the most promising racers on the grid, apparently plagued the British team with expenditures related to crashes.

Franco Colapinto of Argentina driver of Williams Racing Formula One Team at the F1 Grand Prix Of Abu Dhabi - Source: Getty

“A lot of hype came out of South America that he would be their next world champion. It would have been the wrong thing if he was promoted to the Red Bull seat. There was a rumor. It would have been way too early.

“There is no doubt the crash damage bill he caused at Williams was not small. The one in Vegas, Williams were annoyed about that,” he said via Crash.

Notably, James Vowles, the team principal of Williams, stated that Franco Colapinto's and Alex Albon's crashes cost the team over $3 million. Given the strict cost cap, having three million dollars as a repair cost in one race weekend is enormous for a team.