Pierre Gasly explains why he is confident about Alpine taking a step in F1 2026 as he can see behind the scenes how they are working plus faith on Flavio Briatore and Steve Nielsen.
With no updates on Alpine side, they have fallen quite the back in the pack off-late. Even though they qualify well, they drop back due to lack of race pace. The power unit is not as powerful plus the change of front wing in Barcelona hurt its performance, with no upgrades throughout the season.
They are left with fighting among themselves and hoping to make use of strategy or incidents to finish higher up. But its experienced campaigner Gasly isn’t in the pessimistic lane, especially thinking about the 2026 F1 season. With host of changes to come, the Frenchman has good faith in the abilities.
Additionally, Alpine will have the Mercedes power unit, which will help in terms of power output. Gasly stressed that the work environment has improved which has contributed in his confidence. He notes the experience has increased after influx of new personnel from various teams.
He can sense that the ingredients are in place for a good run and that they have one of the best brain power in their factory. “I think over the past two years I’m quite confident that whenever the guys brought something to the track it actually delivered, so I think I’m confident in the tools we have and the processes we have,” said Gasly to media.
“To be fair when you look at our staff technically I’m confident that we must have one of the best technical staff across all teams. I’m not saying the best but when you look at the brain power we have at the factory it’s actually very impressive we have amazing people, very smart people, successful experience coming from, some from Enstone for many years, some others coming from Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes.
“So you start to have a picture of the way we work and the environment and the other teams that people worked in as well. You can gauge and when I see all the ingredients we have on the table we have everything we need to be successful. At the start of the year when the team told me the plan for the development of the year, I wanted to go even more aggressive than what they put out first and that’s why I’m fully supportive. Has it been nice? No. Has it been most enjoyable? Clearly not.
“But if it’s what I need to go through to make sure I have amazing times next year I’ll do it every single time. I think the most important is to make sure we get the performance on the car next year and I believe we can achieve it,” summed up Gasly, who also put faith on team boss Briatore and manager Nielsen for carrying the team forward in the difficult run they have had.
Nielsen only joined them halfway into the season after yet another departure in the form of Oliver Oakes. “I think Steve is amazing, I really like his approach, obviously a lot of experience I think they complement each other very well with Flavio, two different characters but somehow they manage to speak the same language and really make the best out of the situation we are in,” said Gasly.
“I think they are two great leaders and obviously it’s just been a short time here, so you can’t really judge after such a short time, the inputs he’s had in the team but he’s clearly the right person for the job and I think he’s definitely going to make all of us stronger as a team and he’s going to be the right guy to lead the team into 2026.”
Here’s Franco Colapinto on his situation
