Briatore: Colapinto 'needs to improve'

Franco Colapinto has struggled to live up to expectations since replacing Jack Doohan at the sixth race of the season, with his best finish in five Grands Prix appearances being 13th.

There is also uncertainty about how many races Colapinto will race in. Initially, it was thought that there was only a plan to run five races, but that number seems to have increased despite the lack of results.

Flavio Briatore, who brought Colapinto to Alpine, made some very harsh statements about this issue at the Austrian Grand Prix. He pointed out that Gasly qualified in Q3 while Colapinto was left behind.

"It looks like the car was good enough to get into Q3 but we still don't see two cars where they should be," Briatore said.

"Franco made it through Q1 but was too slow to make Q3. We need to improve on that if we want to be competitive with both cars."

Colapinto, for his part, openly admitted that he was having difficulty: "Right now the car is difficult for me to drive."

"It's inconsistent and doesn't give me the confidence to push hard in the high-speed corners."

"It was a tough weekend. We made some progress overall but it still felt like something was missing."