Pierre Gasly does not lack ambition for Alpine F1 at the start of this 2026 season: the French driver is clearly aiming to close the gap with the current benchmarks of the field, McLaren and Ferrari.
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After a catastrophic 2025 season, the Enstone team had made the deliberate choice to sacrifice its short-term performance to focus fully on the new regulations.
A gamble shared by several teams, but one from which Alpine now seems to be reaping the rewards faster than expected and better than the competition.
A solid start to the campaign
Since the start of the season, Pierre Gasly has been particularly solid, scoring points in the first three Grands Prix, with a best result of sixth place in China. With 15 points already on the board, he is now only seven points away from his total for last season, which alone represented all the points scored by Alpine in 2025.
Despite five weeks of intensive development at the factory before the scheduled restart in Miami in May, the Norman driver nevertheless prefers to temper expectations.
“I think it won’t happen in the space of a month, but I would like us to be able to get more involved with that group ahead of us after the summer break, meaning with McLaren and Ferrari,” he confides.
In the right direction
“In Japan, the gap was still too large to really participate in that fight. But seven seconds over 28 laps represents three to four tenths, and that’s what we need to work on.”
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Gasly notably points out the tricky race behavior of his A526: “The car was a bit tricky, I wasn’t as comfortable as in qualifying. I was struggling in the fast corners, which is one of our current limits. With a better balance, there would already be a way to close part of that gap on race pace.”
“We know what we need to improve, and that’s positive. We don’t have to worry about the engine; we have the best of what’s currently available. We just need to focus on the chassis and our work. I think we have a good base, we just need to improve it.”
At Suzuka, he spent a large part of the race holding off his former teammate at Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen. A situation indicative of the difficulties encountered by the Austrian team at the start of this season.
This renewed competitiveness gives confidence
Long the benchmark of the field, Red Bull has clearly slipped down the hierarchy and now sits in sixth place in the constructors’ championship, behind Haas F1 by two small points. Tied with Alpine, the Milton Keynes team is nevertheless behind thanks to Gasly’s seventh place at Suzuka.
“I’m happy because the car seems to work on all types of circuits. That inevitably gives confidence, concludes Gasly. I haven’t been back to the factory yet, but I hope everyone enjoys seeing us fight for these types of positions. It’s very different from last year, and I hope it will give a boost to keep working hard and put us in an even better position in the coming months.”
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