When Alpine’s controversial early Formula 1 driver change happened barely a month ago, Alpine boss Flavio Briatore asked only three things of Franco Colapinto: “he needs to be fast, not crash, and score points”. Alpine only gave its rookie Jack Doohan six grands prix before bringing Colapinto in the expectation he would be a clear upgrade. But in three races since replacing Doohan, Colapinto is 0 for 3 in meeting Briatore’s demands – and this move is really not working out as planned. Like his predecessor, Colapinto hasn’t scored a point so far, although he’s had half the number of races Doohan did. He’s shunted out of qualifying at Imola, spent a tricky first F1 weekend in Monaco off the pace, then looked slow again in Spain at the outset. It seemed like a much-need improvement was on the cards in qualifying – only for Colapinto to miss his final Q1 run with a technical problem that he might have accidentally caused himself. Unfortunately, Barcelona was irreversibly compromised by that qualifying problem, and Colapinto was consigned to a third race in a row spent stuck near the back of the field. Despite Briatore’s subsequent claims to the contrary, Alpine said […]