Alpine team leader Flavio Briatore has contradicted his own squad’s announcement that Franco Colapinto had been promoted to a race seat for the next five Formula 1 rounds from this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

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.

The contradiction is jarring: a written team statement outlining a fixed plan, and a team boss casually brushing that aside within nine days. For a team in flux and languishing near the back of the grid, the inconsistency hardly inspires confidence in its management direction.