The 10-time grand prix winner has been strongly linked with a switch to the new Cadillac project in 2026, but Alpine is now understood to be a serious alternative for the experienced Finn.

Media reports following the Austrian Grand Prix indicated that Alpine executive advisor and current interim team principal Flavio Briatore approached Mercedes to discuss Bottas’s availability, with talks said to be at a very early stage.

Those reports also suggest that Mercedes would be open to releasing Bottas to drive for Alpine, given the team’s switch to Mercedes customer engines next year.

The developments add further pressure on the struggling Colapinto, who in Austria reached his fifth Grand Prix for Alpine — the number of races he was initially announced to contest after replacing Jack Doohan following the Miami Grand Prix.

The Argentinian, who is said to be on a race-by-race contract, is yet to finish higher than 13th and has managed a best qualifying result of 12th, outqualifying teammate Pierre Gasly just once so far.

He has also been involved in several incidents, most notably a heavy crash during qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and forcing championship leader Oscar Piastri off the track while being lapped during last weekend’s race in Austria.

Despite Briatore being the key figure behind bringing Colapinto into the team in place of Doohan, his patience with the 22-year-old appears to be wearing thin. After qualifying in Austria, he commented that Colapinto’s performances must improve.

“Clearly, the car was good enough for Q3, but we are still lacking having two cars up where they should be,” Briatore said. “Franco was through Q1 but too far away to reach Q3, which we need to improve if we are to put ourselves in a more competitive position with both cars.”

He also said in Spain that he was “not happy at all” with Colapinto’s performance so far with the team.

Bottas has been vocal about his desire to return to a full-time race seat since rejoining Mercedes as their third driver for 2025, having not been re-signed by Sauber at the end of 2024.

He is among the frontrunners for a Cadillac seat next year as the American team prepares to make its debut on the grid, and said on the Beyond the Grid podcast earlier this year that he misses racing and isn’t done with the sport yet.

“I’m sitting here now without a race seat, not because of my own choice,” Bottas said. “I definitely still feel – and that emotion was quite quick after I knew I wouldn’t get a seat for this year – that I’m not done yet with F1.

“I still have more to give. It’s still [the] number one thing in my life. That sensation, now that I’ve been watching aside, has got stronger and stronger and stronger, and now I really start to miss racing.”