Franco Colapinto's F1 negotiations saw missed opportunities with Red Bull but led to a promising reserve driver role at Alpine.

Red Bull have agreed to an early release for Jonathan Wheatley to join Sauber, Crash.net has learned. Jonathan Wheatley will take up his position as team principal of the Sauber F1 team sooner than planned after Red Bull agreed to an early release.

Franco Colapinto has recently signed with Alpine, where he hopes to return to F1 as a full-time driver at some point of the season. Still, it could have turned out differently, as Red Bull were also interested in the Argentinian driver.

Franco Colapinto’s manager Maria Catarineu says it “didn’t work out” with Red Bull who were interested in signing the Argentinean as Max Verstappen’s F1 2025 team-mate. Colapinto arrived on the Formula 1 grid last year as an unknown,