Behind Pierre Gasly’s 8th place in Canada lies a strange technical mystery. Since the upgrades in Miami, the Norman no longer recognizes his Alpine A526, to the point of having to sacrifice his new parts. Investigation into an invisible ailment that poisons his weekends.
In the standings, Pierre Gasly’s eighth place in Montreal confirms the solid impression left by the French team at the start of the 2026 season. However, this happy outcome masks a darker reality: since the introduction of upgrades in Miami, the Frenchman no longer recognizes his machine.
Outqualified by his new garage neighbor, Franco Colapinto, in the last four timed sessions (including sprints), the Norman points to a radical and unexplained change in the behavior of his Alpine A526. A deficit mainly located in low-speed traction, preventing Gasly from exploiting the car at the limit.
“It’s been the same since the first lap of free practice in Miami”, Gasly confided Sunday evening. “We see it in the data, we see very clearly what is happening and we just have to understand exactly where it comes from, and that will be part of the work we will have to do before Monaco.”
The last-chance laboratory in Montreal
Faced with this misunderstanding, the Enstone engineers took advantage of the Canadian weekend to conduct a true technical exclusion procedure. After a catastrophic Sprint qualifying (19th), the team broke the parc fermé regime to modify the settings and make a drastic rollback: reinstalling the old floor on Gasly’s car instead of the new underbody introduced in Canada (and illustrated below).
If his true qualifying position remains unclear – due to a marmot hit in Q1 that damaged his car before Q2 –, the trend was confirmed. While Colapinto shines with the full package, Gasly has to make do with a hybrid configuration.
“As a team, we have a good understanding coming out of the weekend and we can exclude the parts, but it will still be important to analyze them more deeply and understand, once the car is back at the factory, how to recover this performance”, explains the French driver.
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The data enigma: an untraceable problem?
The Montreal track, with its brutal accelerations after slow chicanes, was the worst playground for Gasly’s current troubles. While the race pace proved sufficient to save big points, the mystery remains complete for Alpine’s technical management. Steve Nielsen, the team’s general manager, confirms this invisible anomaly:
“Pierre was not satisfied with the car’s balance all weekend”, Nielsen told Autosport. “He lacked downforce compared to the other car. We don’t really know why, but it seemed to disappear during the race, so I think we really need to look at the details and understand what happened. But the team did not panic, worked hard, and the result is there.”
A subtle divergence, invisible to classic simulations, that the team will have to dissect as soon as the cars return to digital and physical format at Enstone.
“I think it’s not so simple”, Gasly concludes when asked about a structural defect. “For now, I can only feel what I feel and we can only see in the data what we see in terms of difference. Whether it’s a component or something else in the settings, it’s a very small difference that does not explain the gap we observe, so I don’t think it’s the settings.”
“It could be many things, that’s why I think we need more days and we need to go back to the factory, get the car and just understand a bit better. There is performance, but since Miami, my traction potential has clearly changed, and we need to bring it back to where it was.”
Pierre Gasly has scored only 5 points in the last two Grands Prix, while his teammate Franco Colapinto has scored 14.
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