Alpine, uncertain start
Flavius Briatore had framed the top-6 as an objective that Alpine should consistently achieve 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 fighting for ninth place at most), but has also lost the comparison with Audi, Racing Bulls and Haas, all of whom finished ahead of the A526. Just a great Pierre Gasleywho worked hard to keep his former teammate Esteban Ocon behind him, saved his debut with tenth place; the Frenchman, however, believes that much better can be done in China.
Gasly’s words
“I leave Melbourne with mixed feelings, but overall I’m quite optimistic in view of Shanghai and the first Sprint of the year. We had to fight hard to get a point in a really challenging but quite 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 a lot of new things to learn and it seems like some teams are way ahead of others in this regard, so it was good to make progress from Friday to Sunday and get a little reward at the end of the weekend“he added.”I think we could have achieved more if some things had gone in our favor. However, we know that it is not enough, that there are some key areas we need to focus on“.
Colapinto’s words
“The Melbourne race was tough and 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’m happy that I was able to react so quickly and stay in the race. I have to say, seeing the replay still amazes me! We go to Shanghai to improve on Melbourne: it’s really difficult to know what the track will be like with these cars and, given that it’s the first Sprint weekend of the year, we only have an hour on Friday to figure it out. It will be a huge challenge for all drivers and teams. We have to be very flexible and start off on the right foot, because there is a lot to learn“.
