Colapinto's Suzuka Salvage: Alpine's Franco Ends a Long Points Drought

For Franco Colapinto, the most important lap of the Japanese Grand Prix happened in the slow-down cool-down, once he already knew the points were his. For Alpine, it was the moment that finally put a competitive result next to the paddock's recent narrative about the Argentine rookie. "It was good," Colapinto said afterwards. "I've been looking for those points since a long time ago, and it was really positive for me and for the team to have a double-point finish again since a very long time ago. So it was good, of course that we were looking for more." Two sentences. No complaints about the car, no mention of the controversy that has dominated his season's coverage. For a driver whose name has been in more headlines than points columns in 2026, it was a deliberate choice of words. The Suzuka result gave Alpine its first double-points finish of the season after Pierre Gasly backed up Colapinto's drive with a typically economical race. The scoreboard is modest — a pair of single-digit points rather than anything that reshapes the constructors' standings — but inside the Enstone-run team, those points are being treated as proof of life. The context matters. Colapinto's season has been shadowed by claims, amplified across Spanish- and English-language YouTube alike, that elements within Alpine had been quietly working against him. The team's rare open letter pushing back on what it called "sabotage claims" landed only a week before Suzuka. There was nothing a statement could do that a results sheet could not, and Colapinto delivered the sheet. His quote is notable for what it does not say. No reference to the controversy. No complaint about machinery. No swipe at unnamed figures within the team. Instead, the emphasis is placed squarely on time — "since a long time ago" — and on collective achievement — "for me and for the team." It is the kind of public posture Alpine's management has been quietly coaching him towards for months. For Gasly, the Frenchman's contribution also came quietly. The veteran, back from a widely praised 10/10 performance in qualifying, extracted the maximum from an A526 that is clearly behind the Aston Martin-Honda package on pure pace but ahead of it on race-day consistency. Inside Enstone, the internal metric that matters most is not the points-per-weekend number but the delta between Gasly's and Colapinto's race paces — and in Suzuka that delta was the tightest it has been all season. The five-week break before Miami now gives Alpine two different things to do. The first is to put performance updates onto a car that is finally beginning to convert its qualifying pace into race results. The second is to keep its rookie insulated from a media environment that has, by his own team's public admission, not treated him fairly. Colapinto's tendency to deflect credit towards the team is, in that sense, not a quirk of personality. It is a survival strategy. None of which takes away from what the points mean inside the Alpine motorhome. A team that had started to become a running joke because of Formula 1 Drive to Survive-style controversy — rather than because of its sporting performance — left Suzuka with tangible evidence that its 2026 season is not over. "It's looking really positive at the start," Colapinto said, allowing himself a half-step of optimism. For a driver who has spent weeks being told the opposite by outsiders, it was the understatement that mattered most. --- *Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/colapinto-alpine-double-points-suzuka-franco-breakthrough-2026). Visit for full coverage.*