After completing his work in the first pre-season tests in Formula 1 with Alpine in Barcelona, Franco Colapinto accepted an extreme challenge in the snow.Accompanied by his representatives, Jamie Campell Walter and MaríaCatarineu, the Argentine drove a vehicle on a completely snowy Andorra circuit.
“I’ve never had so much fun. This is soooo cute!!!!”, commented the man from Pilar in a story on his Instagram.In the video that the rider published, his British representative was the co-pilot who accompanied him while he was driving.
Jamie Campell Walter, who manages the agency that represents Colapinto (BulletSports Management) with his wife María Catarineu, posted more videos and images of the 22-year-old young man spinning at the Circuit Andorra Pas de laCasa on his networks.“It’s time for some fun,” the agent wrote in a story. He then uploaded a video of the albiceleste runner lying on his back in the snow, unleashing laughter among those present.
Franco Colapinto has just participated in his first preseason tests in Formula 1 at the Circuit de Catalunya.The Argentine completed 60 laps(279 km) in Monday’s practice aboard the new Alpine car and 58 laps(570 km) on Wednesday morning.In a key context to verify the reliability of the car and adapt to the new technical regulations, the pillar from Pilar performed a total of 118 laps and his best time was 1:19.150, although the latter does not represent an important objective during tests of this characteristic.
For his part, Pierre Gasly got on the A526 for the first time in Montmeló – he tested it in a private session at Silverstone – during the second shift on Wednesday: he recorded a total of 63 laps.The Frenchman was in charge of leading the team during the day on Friday, where he completed 164 laps and accumulated a total of 231. Alpine, for its part, reached 349 laps during the three days of activity enabled (1,625 kilometers traveled).
“New cars, new generation, it is a completely new era of cars and the innovations are so different that there is a lot to get used to. Not only for us, the drivers, but also for the engineers and mechanics,” Colapinto commented on Alpine’s activity in the private test in Barcelona, in dialogue with Sky Sports.
Regarding the tests, he explained: “This test is very valuable for everyone to understand how everything works, how we need to begin to understand the driving style, the technique, so that the mechanics understand how to drive the car, where the most sensitive parts of the systems, the chassis and the configuration are.”
“There is a lot of power coming out of the corners and that’s great. It’s a nice feeling. But of course, you have a lot less slowness. And that slower speed makes it more difficult to accelerate with the extra power. So there is a lot of skidding, which makes it fun. Not so much for the tires, but for us, to skid a little more,” he added about the characteristics of the car.
Who also gave his point of view on the new vehicles was SteveNielsen, CEO of Alpine, who stated that “it has much higher straight line speeds than we had seen before, as well as less aerodynamic drag in corners.”
The next test session will take place from February 11 to 13 on the Bahrain circuit, while the third round was scheduled between the 18th and 20th of the same month, also on the Middle East circuit.The official start of the 2026 calendar will be on the weekend of March 6 to 8 at the Australian Grand Prix.
