Formula 1 racing team Alpine announces a change to the driver line-up a few days before the Mexican Grand Prix.
Pierre Gasly clears his car in the first free practice session before the Formula 1 spectacle in Mexico. As Alpine announced on Tuesday evening, the A525 will be piloted by reserve driver Paul Aron.
The 21-year-old Estonian has been part of the French squad since this year. He was previously part of the Mercedes funding program from 2019 to 2023. Now he can do self-promotion again in order to recommend himself for higher things.
Aron has already played in the premier class several times. At the end of June he was loaned to Sauber to take part in two training sessions as part of the races in Great Britain and Hungary. According to the FIA statutes, every team must give young drivers this opportunity during four Friday training sessions. In recent years, Theo Pourchaire has taken over this at Sauber, but he is no longer part of the academy.
The young driver, who took third place overall in Formula 2 in 2024, was then allowed to take part in the first free training session at Monza in September. At that time he got into the car instead of Franco Colapinto.
Paul Aron is pushing into Formula 1
A little later, team boss Flavio Briatore revealed on the sidelines of the Formula 1 weekend in Azerbaijan that Paul Aron now even has a chance of being promoted to regular driver. Alpine has not yet confirmed the driver pairing for 2025. “It’s a decision between Franco and Paul,” said the Italian: However, he still has to “understand” which of the two options is the best for the team.
Ultimately, other drivers were out of the question: “I don’t see any other options. We see other drivers, but we don’t have the feeling that there is anything special there.”
Franco Colapinto only moved from Williams to Alpine at the start of the season, where he initially took over as reserve driver. Then he was given the starting place by Jack Doohan, who seems to have played no role in Flavio Briatore’s plans since then.