Alpine candidate reveals ‘simple goal’ as Franco Colapinto pressure mounts

Paul Aron has outlined his own personal timeline for an F1 race seat, as he eyes up a potential vacancy at the Alpine team.

The Estonian driver is part of Alpine’s roster of drivers this year, and is hopeful of landing a race seat if and when the next opening occurs.

Paul Aron: Everything I’m doing is aimed towards an F1 race seat

Additional reporting by Henry Valantine.

As part of Alpine’s Driver Academy, Aron became a reserve driver for the Enstone-based squad this year, alongside Franco Colapinto and Kush Maini.

At the British Grand Prix last weekend, Aron made his F1 weekend debut by appearing in first practice with Sauber, following the arrangement of a loan deal between Alpine and Sauber to give Aron more contemporary race seat time alongside his TPC outings in an older Alpine F1 car.

Aron finished his session in 17th place, ahead of temporary teammate Gabriel Bortoleto in the second car.

Heading to the Goodwood Festival of Speed with Alpine for a run up the famous hill, Aron outlined his goal this year to put the building blocks in place to land a race seat next season, as Alpine is yet to confirm who will slot in beside Pierre Gasly.

“My goal this year is simple,” he told PlanetF1.com.

“I want to get a full-time race seat, and I’m not in a rush. I don’t need it this year, but I want it, at the latest, for next year.

“Everything I do this year is aimed towards that. Being here as the reserve driver at Alpine, my role is to stay ready and, whenever a driver gets injured, to be up to date to jump in.

“On top of that, my duties are simulator work and doing stuff like this, coming to Goodwood, and so on.

“But, at the same time, my goal is to find a full-time seat. So whatever I get to do, I try to do it as best as possible. I think what I’ve shown Alpine, they are very happy with what they’ve seen, but obviously, the rest of the world hasn’t seen anything about me because I haven’t been taking part in official sessions.”

Alpine started the year with Australian driver Jack Doohan alongside Gasly but, after the Miami Grand Prix, opted to swap Colapinto into Doohan’s seat. The Argentinean driver had a wave of momentum behind him towards the end of 2024, having impressed upon his arrival as a replacement for Logan Sargeant at Williams.

Colapinto was initially given a five-race deal to drive in Doohan’s vacated car but, following this timeframe, has been kept on for a weekend-by-weekend evaluation that has seen team executive advisor Flavio Briatore give the Argentinean time to find his feet with the A525.

However, Colapinto has struggled for pace and performance as Gasly has very much shown a clean pair of heels to Colapinto, whose misery was perhaps encapsulated by a qualifying crash at Silverstone that had Briatore holding his head in his hands upon witnessing.

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Speculation has emerged that Alpine may yet be eying up another driver change for the seat alongside Gasly, with Valtteri Bottas emerging as a candidate to step into the car if Alpine opts for an experienced hand over yet another rookie driver, as Aron would be.

Colapinto has denied being concerned about losing his seat, but Aron may yet get an opportunity this season if Enstone decides sticking with its own internal hirings is preferable to Bottas, particularly given that a Bottas hiring could prove to be short-term; the experienced Finn has been strongly linked with a Cadillac race seat for 2026.

“I think, generally, my name doesn’t go through the media as much as some other people,” Aron said.

“So any opportunity I get to be in front of the big eyes is good for me, because it’s more exposure.

“My name is in front of more people, and I’m just in the picture more when there are talks about race seats and stuff like that. This is important, especially at this time of the year when the summer break is approaching, and we all know that, in F1, a lot of the things get decided during the summer break.

“With these FP1s, it’s very simple. I just try to do the best job I can. In the end, I don’t control the run plan I get. I don’t control what engine modes we are running. I don’t control any of these things, so I get given a plan, and I need to follow it as best as possible.

“The other rule is that you definitely don’t want to damage the car.

“Taking all those things into consideration, I’m trying to be as quick as possible and show as much potential as possible, because these are the only opportunities at the moment that I have this year to be in front of the big screens and be exposed to the wider audience. That’s a very important opportunity for me.”

Jumping in and out of Alpine and Sauber’s F1 cars broadens Aron’s experience of driving different cars with unique design philosophies, which he believes only adds to his knowledge base.

“Any mileage in a Formula 1 car is going to be useful,” he said.

“The fact that I got two more FP1s, thanks to Sauber, is great for me, more mileage and more mileage on different tracks.

“I guess it’s always a benefit to be driving different cars, but at the same time, I’m not going to be driving them on the same tracks, and it’s going to be very different conditions, and it’s still going to be difficult to compare.

“Also, I need to play fair between the teams, because it’s been very nice from Alpine to lend me to a rivaling team to do some FP1s, and it’s been very nice from Sauber to accept that and to have that interest.

“So, at the same time, I need to be fair and try to play it as well as possible for both of them.”

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