Alpine, uncertain start
Flavio Briatore had targeted the top-6 as a goal that Alpine should have consistently reached in the 2026 World Championship. The start of the championship, however, has shown that the French team is not only clearly behind the top four (and therefore now in a normal GP fights at most for ninth place), but has also lost the comparison with Audi, Racing Bulls and Haas, all of which finished ahead of the A526. Only a great Pierre Gasly, who sweated to keep former teammate Esteban Ocon behind, saved the debut with tenth place; the Frenchman, however, believes that much better can be done in China.
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Gasly’s words
“I leave Melbourne with mixed feelings, but overall I am quite optimistic ahead of Shanghai and the first Sprint of the year. We had to fight hard to earn a point in a truly challenging but rather fun race. Compared to how we started the weekend, we have made a lot of progress and I think we will continue on this path, learning and understanding how to make the most of this new car“, commented Gasly.
“There are clearly many new things to learn and it seems that some teams are much further ahead than others in this sense, so it was positive to take steps forward from Friday to Sunday and get a small reward at the end of the weekend“, he added. “I think we could have achieved more if some things had gone our way. We know however that it is not enough, that there are some key areas we need to focus on“.
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Colapinto’s words
“The Melbourne race was tough and it was not the way we wanted to start the year“, added Franco Colapinto. “I managed to avoid what could have been a serious accident at the start, I managed to squeeze between the Racing Bulls and the pit wall. It was a near miss and I am happy that I was able to react so quickly and stay in the race. I must say that seeing the replay still amazes me! We are going to Shanghai to improve compared to Melbourne: it is really difficult to know what the track will be like with these cars and, since it is the first Sprint weekend of the year, we only have one hour on Friday to figure it out. It will be a huge challenge for all drivers and teams. We need to be very flexible and start on the right foot, because there is a lot to learn“.
