By Beto Pacheco Levicoy
With only 1 month left for the start of the new F1 season, everything is starting to take shape, news coming out every day for every team and after the Barcelona Shakedown we are starting to have some interesting information about teams already.
In This case Alpine, after a pity 2025 with a new Engine, new era, an elite driver and a promising young driver this 2026 is already looking much more promising than last year.
Alpine’s new Era
There is no secret to Alpine’s struggle last season, but Flavio Briatore himself said halfway the season that Alpine will get no significan upgrades on the awaiting of the new season and new era.
Alpine prepared specifically to be competitive in this new “Hybrid Era” changing the Renault engine for a Mercedes Engine. And even when we still need to know how the FIA’s checking of Mercedes Engine’s compression ratio will end up, there are some things that look promising already:
– The result of Barcelona’s shakedown, Alpine squad completed 164 laps with no significant engine or electric related issue.
– The signing of Oliver Oakes as New Team Principal, an experienced Young man in categories such as F2, F3 and British F4, know for developing Young drivers and building teams from the ground up.
– Wind tunnel time. Like I said before Alpine pretty much “threw away” last season in preparation for the new era, and as Alpine ended last, they have the more time available on the wind tunnel, along with the newer Team Cadillac with 460 hs each. The wind Tunnel is used for testing the aerodinamics, measuring the downforce, test Front & rear wings among other things.
Why drivers are key
Alpine’s Lead driver Pierre Gasly will enter 2026 with 9 previous seasons on F1 under his belt. He has prove before to be a Qualy Specialist and fast driver when given a good car. Accomplishing 6 podiums and 1 win in his F1 career so fat. Alpine has secured their future and present with the french man until 2028. He will certainly receive firstly every upgrade on his car this season and Pierre himself said: That he wants to win races this year!
On the other hand there is a young talent, doubted by many for a pointless season, but is also someone who had great juniors background having won the F4 Spain championship, finishing top 5 in F3 and having a good F2 season until he got the call from Williams to replace Logan Sargeant. It was in Williams where he had better results scoring 5 points in 9 races. The upcoming season will be Colapinto’s first season with a real pre season and with just one year extension by Alpine confirmed, this will be his “do or die” moment.
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