Alpine endured another dismal weekend at Formula 1‘s Mexico City Grand Prix, with Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto reduced to propping up the order once again.
Qualifying at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez acted as an omen for Alpine’s race pace, with Gasly lining up 18th, and Colapinto starting in the unenviable 20th spot.
Despite strong starts for both drivers, they quickly fell back through the field, ending the race in 19th and 20th, a lap down on the leaders, off the pace of the midfield.
That has been an all-too regular tale since the summer break, as Alpine has long stopped developing the A525 to maximise its attention on the rule changes in 2026.
Regardless, Gasly was left frustrated by the Enstone-based squad’s strategy for the second consecutive weekend, perplexed by the choice to do a long stint on Softs.
“It’s a very long race, a lot of degradation on Medium, we fitted the Soft, did 37 laps, so the most out of everyone and very similar to last week,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I want to review exactly why we’re doing this very long stint on Soft, because we know obviously we’re degrading a lot more the tyres than the others.
“So it just doesn’t feel like we made the best out of the race and could have had slightly better race time.
“But we’ll review with the guys and ultimately it would have not changed where we would have finished, so it’s just a bit painful.”
The Frenchman has highlighted that the team was aware it would be struggling with degradation as the stint length he conducted wasn’t in Alpine’s original thinking.
“I think we knew it. I mean there are a couple of strategies which we evaluated and this one was not really the one we were really targeting initially,” he explained.
“So I just need to review with the guys why, and ultimately we were just too slow.
“I managed a good start, I overtook two, three cars within five, six laps, I got overtaken and then after we were just on our own at the back, so a pretty long afternoon.”
No development and no hope for Alpine in the closing races?
Gasly has conceded that the chasm between the other midfield teams and Alpine continuing to widen as the campaign has progressed has taken its toll on the side.
“I wonder how we managed to fight with some of the cars [earlier in the season],” he pondered.
“But when you see [Oliver] Bearman in P4, at some point this year I was able to show my nose up there, at the moment it’s just very far away from that.
“So I think we’ve just got to stick together another four weekends and then after we’ll focus on something a bit brighter for us because I must say it’s just painful at the moment.”
With Alpine not possessing the pace to score on merit in the dry, Gasly admitted he is hoping that rain can create opportunities for Alpine next weekend in Brazil.
“I’m motivated, but I’m not enjoying being last and just having no fights,” he lamented.
“It’s just a race against yourself and even that I don’t feel we’re really extracting the max out of it.
“So on a day like today I’m not fully pleased because I just feel like we’ve probably left 10, 15 seconds out there, so yeah, it’s not really enjoyable.
“I mean, at the minute, it’s been a while since we had some rain, so I’d definitely be keen for a bit more eventful and a bit more action under the rain in Brazil.”
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