IMOLA, Italy (AP) — Franco Colapinto says replacing another Formula 1 driver during the season is “never nice circumstances” and he doesn’t believe his five-race deal with Alpine is long enough.
After Australian rookie Jack Doohan was dropped amid wider upheaval at Alpine, Colapinto was promoted from a reserve role last week to partner Pierre Gasly starting this week at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Colapinto, who drove nine races with Williams last year, has a commitment from Alpine that he'll get only the next five races to show what he can do. He said that might not be enough time to shake off the rust.
“Everything is new again, we start from zero," Colapinto said Thursday. "Of course, it wasn’t the nicest, after doing the last nine races of last year, to kind of step out. It was not what I wanted, but it was a good time to kind of reflect on what happened last year and to learn from it.
“Happy to be back, and of course never nice circumstances when it happens like this, when you step in another driver’s seat, but you never really choose the moment you do it in Formula 1.”
The 21-year-old Colapinto is back in Italy where he made his F1 debut last year when Williams dropped struggling American driver Logan Sargeant before the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
This time, the Argentine says he feels more relaxed — even if he is “a bit rusty, maybe” — and delighted to be back, with strong backing from South American fans.
“Monza was like a massive excitement and everything was new, and it was the first time I was going to be a part of a Formula 1 week," he said. "So here it feels a bit different. It’s still my dream come true so the feelings are the same.”
Alpine has promised Colapinto only five races followed by “a new evaluation” in July, so he needs to make the sort of quick impact he did with Williams last year, scoring points in his second race.
Still, he said, that might not be enough for Alpine to see him at his best. Colapinto flagged up comments this year by the experienced Spanish driver Carlos Sainz Jr. that he might need as many as 10 races to get used to his new car after switching from Ferrari to Williams.
“After you’ve heard Carlos saying that he needs 10 races to get used to a car, I think five is not enough for me (after) I drove nine in all my life in F1,” Colapinto said. “So it probably takes me a few more races, probably a couple more than five, to get up to speed and maximize everything out of the car. But it is what I have and I just want to maximize it, enjoy it and try to do the best for the team."
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Alpine driver Franco Colapinto of Argentina answers reporters during a news conference at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack, ahead the Italy's Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Alpine driver Franco Colapinto of Argentina answers reporters during a news conference at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack, ahead the Italy's Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Alpine driver Franco Colapinto of Argentina answers reporters during a news conference at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack, ahead the Italy's Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
The Kennedy Center is ending the year with a new round of artists saying they are canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump's name was added to the facility, prompting the institution's president to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that has performed together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website, saying the “decision has come together very quickly” and acknowledging frustration from those who may have planned to attend.
Doug Varone and Dancers, a dance group based in New York, said in an Instagram post late Monday they would pull out of a performance slated for April, saying they “can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”
Those moves come after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance last week. They also come amid declining sales for tickets to the venue, as well as news that viewership for the Dec. 23 broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors — which Trump had predicted would soar — was down by about 35% compared to the 2024 show.
The announcements amount to a volatile calendar for one of the most prominent performing arts venues in the U.S. and cap a year of tension in which Trump ousted the Kennedy Center board and named himself the institution's chairman. That led to an earlier round of artist pushback, with performer Issa Rae and the producers of “Hamilton” canceling scheduled engagements while musicians Ben Folds and Renee Fleming stepped down from advisory roles.
The Cookers didn't mention the building's renaming or the Trump administration but did say that, when they return to performing, they wanted to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
The group may not have addressed the Kennedy Center situation directly, but one of its members has. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”
According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Harper said both the board "as well as the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever.”
Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership, posted Monday night on X, “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” intimating the bookings were made under the Biden administration.
In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Grenell said the ”last minute cancellations prove that they were always unwilling to perform for everyone — even those they disagree with politically," adding that the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry.”
There was no immediate word from Kennedy Center officials about whether the entity would pursue legal action against the latest round of artists to cancel performances. Following Redd's cancellation last week, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt.”
Not all artists are calling off their shows. Bluegrass banjoist Randy Barrett, scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next month, told the AP he was “deeply troubled by the politicization” of the venue and respected those who had canceled but feels that “our tribalized country needs more music and art, not less. It’s one of the few things that can bring us together.”
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Scholars have said any changes to the building's name would need congressional approval; the law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.
Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Demonstrators, including Nadine Siler, of Waldorf, Md., dressed in a pink frog costume, hold up signs at a designated protest point in front of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a day after a Trump-appointed board voted to add President Donald Trump's name to the Kennedy Center, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
