Jul.3 (GMM) Valtteri Bottas should think carefully about accepting any offer to leap back into a Formula 1 car mid-season, according to one F1 analyst.
Instability and a lack of results continues to characterise Alpine’s 2025 season, with the latest re-organisation following the sudden exit of Renault CEO Luca de Meo.
De Meo was the one who had appointed Flavio Briatore as his executive F1 advisor – and the 75-year-old now finds himself also the de-facto boss after the unexplained departure of team principal Oliver Oakes.
Briatore insists he will continue to fulfill his role until 2029, under slightly modified conditions,” Auto Motor und Sport explains.
“He must now report directly to Renault president Jean-Dominique Senard,” added correspondent Michael Schmidt. “He, too, is said to be committed to motorsport.”
In fact, rumours in Austria last weekend suggested Alpine may in fact revert to the Renault name from 2026.
Briatore’s bigger concern, however, is that he believes Alpine now has a car worthy of Q3 – but his star protege Franco Colapinto is not living up to the hype.
With Alpine dead last in the constructors’ championship, multiple authoritative reports say Briatore met with his paddock friend and 2026 engine supplier, Toto Wolff, to discuss the situation in Austria.
The meeting with the Mercedes team boss reportedly lasted half an hour – and involved the potential loan of reserve driver Bottas – a 10-time grand prix winner – to Alpine.
The 35-year-old Finnish driver, however, is believed to be close to sealing a multi-season deal with the new-in-2026 team Cadillac.
“If Bottas gets into Alpine now and (Pierre) Gasly gives him a beating every week, he can forget about that Cadillac deal next year,” said respected and long-time Dutch commentator Olav Mol.
“He’d definitely have to perform, otherwise he’d be completely finished in Formula 1,” Mol told Ziggo Sport.
Some, however, believe Bottas has already signed a Cadillac contract.
“Then it would matter less,” Mol agrees. “Then it’s a nice intermediate station.”
Former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos, meanwhile, thinks there’s more to the Bottas-to-Alpine rumour than just performance.
“Don’t forget that Alpine will have Mercedes engines next year,” he noted. “So Alpine could be saying ‘We’ll let Bottas drive now, then we want a discount on the engines next season’.
“In the end, that’s just doing business at a high level.”
Doornbos added that there’s no doubt that Colapinto, 21, has not lived up to the hype so far. “He came into Williams with a bang, but now he’s only causing damage,” said the Dutchman.
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