Colapinto has joined Alpine as a reserve driver on a multi-year deal following a nine-race cameo with Williams last season.
His role will be to support Gasly and Jack Doohan, the latter having made his F1 race debut at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last season.
The Australian was promoted from the squad’s reserve driver role, a position he’d filled for two years, following Esteban Ocon’s decision to join Haas.
Alpine publicly supports Doohan, though speculation has been rampant that he is already under pressure from Colapinto.
Not helping matters are comments from Flavio Briatore, an advisor to the team who has wielded significant influence since joining last year.
“The only thing we can be sure of is death,” he told Le Parisien when asked about Doohan’s future.
“We’ll start the year with Pierre and Jack, I can guarantee that. After that, we’ll see as the season progresses.
“If there’s a driver who isn’t making progress, who isn’t bringing me results, I change him. You can’t be emotional in F1.”
Colapinto made waves when he replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams ahead of the Italian Grand Prix in the latter part of the F1 2024 season.
In his nine-race stint, he scored points twice and proved a good match for the highly rated Alex Albon.
However, a spate of crashes took some of the shine off and left him with a less competitive car, as Williams was forced to revert to previous-spec parts.
It meant the final run of races from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix were less competitive. He failed to finish three of his last four starts.
With Carlos Sainz joining Albon at Williams this year, Colapinto switched to Alpine after being heavily linked to the squad prior to his confirmation.
It’s a move many have seen as putting the writing on the wall for Doohan, though team principal Oliver Oakes insists the Argentine’s arrival is about opening options rather than applying pressure.
Montoya doesn’t buy that and suggests there is a concerted effort to oust Doohan in an effort to secure the South American market.
F1 has already moved to capitalise on the increased interest by sending its F1 Exhibition to Buenos Aries, opening on March 22.
“The difficult thing about Doohan is that from the outside it seems like the decision has already been taken,” Montoya told AS Colombia.
“I think it will happen. I think Formula 1 saw how important [Colapinto’s impact] is and Formula 1 in the background is already helping for that to happen.
“That is super interesting,” he added.
“We were talking about the opportunities at Alpine, the drivers in the academy, the drivers in F2, in F3, very good drivers.
“Franco was at Williams, in the Williams academy and suddenly has a chance to race now.
“Now, none of those drivers in F2 will get the seat, it will be Franco.”
Doohan heads into the season with one key advantage: he is already in the seat meaning, provided he performs, Colapinto will remain on the sidelines.
While ruthless, Briatore is also pragmatic and is not expected to make a change if results are in line with expectations.
Ahead of the season starting, Doohan and Colapinto took part in a private test in Spain last week, while the Aussie has also already completed a seat fitting for the 2025 car.
The 2025 F1 season will launch with the F1 75 event next Tuesday, with three days of testing in Bahrain to follow from February 26.
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