Franco Colapinto involved in an accident during Pirelli testing
Present in Hungary with Alpine for tire testing, the Argentine driver seriously damaged his single-seater on Wednesday morning. Sent to the medical center, the Alpine driver is in good health.
Pirelli’s tire testing at the Hungaroring circuit was disrupted by Franco Colapinto’s accident during the morning. The Argentine driver was behind the wheel of the A525 for this second day of testing. At turn 11, the former Williams driver lost control of his car at over 220 km/h and damaged the 2025 car, thereby interrupting the morning session of the Pirelli tests, which are used to determine the behavior of future 2026 tires to assist the Italian manufacturer.
At that moment, the Argentine was sharing the Hungaroring track, scene of the last Grand Prix won by Lando Norris, with Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari. He was then taken to the medical center for tests, and his condition was described as “correct” by the doctors. The Argentine was supposed to take part in the afternoon session with the 2023 A523, while his teammate Pierre Gasly was to drive the A525.
Colapinto in the wall, Aron performing
The day before, Alpine had given the wheel to Paul Aron alongside Lando Norris’s McLaren and Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls. The Estonian, the reserve driver for the French team who has participated in several free practice sessions with Sauber, recorded the best time of the day with 1:18.789 and completed 159 laps, the highest number among the drivers present. Meanwhile, the Argentinian driver could only complete 25 laps, with a best time of 1:20.270.
If the driver hasn’t suffered any physical injury, his morale has undoubtedly been affected as his place in F1 is increasingly threatened. Successor to Jack Doohan, who was dismissed for lack of results, the Argentine is not performing any better than his predecessor. In 7 races with Alpine, the former Williams driver hasn’t scored a single point and has already experienced several accidents. While Pierre Gasly has scored 13 points since the beginning of their collaboration, Colapinto hasn’t done better than a 13th place finish in Monaco and Canada.
Satisfactory tests according to Mario Isola
If his accident was spectacular, Mario Isola, the director of Pirelli, assures that the prototype tires brought for these tests are not the reason for the incident. « We collected a lot of data, although we regretted a loss of potential mileage following Colapinto’s off-track excursion, even though it was in no way related to the tires. »
Alpine has already announced that the car damaged by Colapinto will be transported to Enstone, at the headquarters of the French team, before closing its doors from Monday for two weeks as part of the mandatory F1 factory shutdown during the summer break.
