After being on the back foot in the previous regulations, Pierre Gasly is enjoying fighting for points in the 2026 Formula 1 season.
After a year in which Gasly barely managed to pick up the final points in the playing positions. 2026 has gotten off to a much stronger start for the Enstone team.
In the 2022 regulations, Alpine struggled. The Renault power unit was falling short of the rest of the field. Prompting Renault to pull out of the sport and pushing the French team to join the ranks of Mercedes customer teams.
After finishing sixth at the Chinese Grand Prix and narrowly missing out on fifth, Gasly sees Alpine in an entirely ‘different league’ compared to the past few seasons.
“I must say I am very happy.” He told Motorsport Week and other media after the race, “Deep inside me, the very competitive Pierre is a little annoyed not to get that P5. Because I really felt comfortable in fifth before the safety car was pulling away.
“The pace was all fine. I wasn’t getting too carried away. Because I knew with these new cars and this new race, it’s not about whether they’re going to be a safety car. It’s when it’s going to be a safety car.”
For Gasly, the restart was where he lost the most ground. As the new power unit did not provide him with any power.
“Eventually, it happened, I bunched up the whole field. At the restart, for whatever reason, I didn’t have the power when I went on power out of the last corner. So, Ollie passed me very easily and lost the position there.
“Then, the mid-race, and all the fighting with the Haas, with Max, and all of that, I kind of lost ground a bit on Bearman. Once I managed to clear all of them, I think I was a bit more than five seconds behind Max and eight seconds behind Bearman.
A big step from 2025
Despite being resigned to sixth place, Gasly echoed Oliver Bearman’s comments of the final stint being qualifying laps over and over again. Something the Alpine driver admitted was ‘enjoyable’.
“It was quali-lap after quali-lap, so on this side it was really enjoyable. I managed to catch up, but I put it in my mind that I was getting them no matter what. In the end, I just came short by two seconds. But it was still a very good day for the team.”
However, Gasly is taking the positives out of every weekend. Coming away from the first two rounds with points is a far cry from the performance they had in 2025.
“I think looking at 2025. Where we were, and where we are now. It’s a completely different league.” Gasly said, “I’m very pleased, we did a good job in qualifying. A couple of tenths of a McLaren in the first stint. I wasn’t losing massive ground compared to the Ferrari.
“There are still many little things we need to fine-tune and fix, but they are not unfixable limitations. So, I’m pretty confident. China was special; hopefully, the performance will be quite similar to here in the coming races.”
The start of the season bodes well for Alpine’s future. With both drivers taking points in China, the team will go into the Japanese Grand Prix with confidence. In a season where some of the biggest teams are struggling, Alpine have a prime opportunity to take advantage and climb through the ranks.
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