Has Alpine finally started its return climb?

When the Renault Group decided to rebrand its Formula 1 team as Alpine for 2021, it perhaps hadn’t considered the potential for nominative determinism and the uphill struggle that emerged before it. Matching its flagship racing team with an evocative name from its past, one that had flirted with F1 in the 1970s but had greater ties to the rallying and endurance worlds, seemed like a sure bet.  

As part of then-CEO Luca de Meo’s “Renaulution” to revitalise the brand at the start of 2021, Renault had merged its sporting arms to sit them under the relaunched Alpine umbrella, a few years after producing a reimagining of its iconic A110 back in 2017. The yellow-and-black hues of its F1 team were now gone, replaced by historically appropriate metallic blue. 

Even so, Alpine was unable to scale the mountain to reach the teams operating at F1’s peak. It instead spent the next three years perched upon a less vertigo-inducing plateau, not quite mired in the midfield, but well short of the frontrunners.

Then, the rope snapped; last year, Alpine fell to the bottom of the order – and so began the precipitous climb once more. Progress made between the 2025 and 2026 season has been significant. Alpine has not only clambered back towards the midfield peak, but appears to be in a much healthier, upwardly mobile state.  

When Flavio Briatore’s emergence back into the fold as an executive advisor was announced, his return to F1 was reviled by those who were au fait with F1’s crash scandal, when Nelson Piquet Jr crashed deliberately in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help Fernando Alonso win by taking advantage of a safety car. The Brazilian subsequently blew the whistle and Briatore was banned for life from F1, although a French court later overturned that decision.

When the team was floundering mid-2024, Briatore was brought back by de Meo. For all the valid concerns and controversies around the Italian, his appointment appears to have been justified from a results perspective. Alpine needed someone to cut through the years of continuous managerial change. 

With Steve Nielsen running the team itself, it now has a seasoned operator who knows what it takes to work with an F1 squad at the sharp end of the grid. Optimism had been in short supply at Enstone, and only ever fleeting, but there’s a genuine buzz about the team once again. It’s been a long time coming. 

Briatore’s inimitable style gets results – and his powers of persuasion brought Nielsen on board

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Alpine’s revolving door finally gets it right

Think of the highlights in Alpine’s recent history, and you might recall Esteban Ocon’s win at the Hungaroring in 2021. Yet that’s likely been superseded in the minds of most by the continued revolving door of managerial personnel. 

This had been a persistent problem ever since Renault bought the team back from Genii Capital in late 2015; Fred Vasseur joined as team principal for 2016, but resigned less than a year later after a power struggle with managing director Cyril Abiteboul.

When Abiteboul then left at the end of 2020, Marcin Budkowski was made de facto team principal, with Laurent Rossi named as Alpine’s CEO and Davide Brivio prised from Suzuki’s MotoGP operations in the supplementary racing director role.  

It was the installation of the disgraced Briatore, at the behest of de Meo, which lit a fire underneath the Alpine team

Yet Brivio was swiftly sidelined and Budkowski led Alpine’s fortunes for the first year, which bequeathed Ocon’s win – the first for the Enstone team since Kimi Raikkonen’s victory for Lotus in Australia in 2013.  

This could not stop the revolving door of management; Budkowski left at the end of the season, and the team snared Otmar Szafnauer from Aston Martin to fill the team principal void in 2022. After an encouraging first year, the team began to slide; Szafnauer’s reign included the loss of Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri, leading to Pierre Gasly’s arrival. 

Gasly and Ocon resolved to put their long-standing antagonism aside, but ultimately could not avoid the undercurrent of tension. Months after labelling the team “amateurish”, Rossi was replaced as Alpine CEO by Philippe Krief in July, before Szafnauer was then given his marching orders after the Belgian GP, followed out of the door by team stalwart Alan Permane.  

The team’s high point of recent years undoubtedly Ocon’s 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix victory

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

Ex-Peugeot man and Alpine vice-president Bruno Famin was parachuted in to take over and, after a dismal start to 2024, reorganised the technical team after Matt Harman and Dirk de Beer fell on their swords. David Sanchez, fresh from a three-month stint at McLaren, was installed as executive technical director. 

But it was the installation of the disgraced Briatore, at the behest of de Meo, which lit a fire underneath the Alpine team. Famin and Briatore closed the Renault powertrain operation at Viry-Chatillon to significantly cut costs, the former leaving as Hitech F2 owner Oli Oakes took over as the new principal. Mercedes was also brought in as the team’s new engine supplier. 

With Gasly then signing a long-term deal with Alpine, it suggested that things were finally beginning to look up until Oakes’s own tenure came to a sudden end in the early stages of 2025. His brother William, also a director at Hitech, was found in possession of a “large amount of cash” and was charged with transferring criminal property. To preserve his own business, Oakes called time on his Alpine tenure. 

This brought Briatore to Nielsen, who had been Renault’s sporting director during Briatore’s previous reign. Nielsen, by all accounts, was reluctant; having left competitive life for two stints with FOM, separated by an 11-month spell at the FIA, he was not necessarily keen to give up his comfortable living arrangements in the south of France. Briatore wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Nielsen was persuaded to take the role of managing director. 

When Nielsen joined last September, 2025 was already a write-off and the team had turned its full attention onto 2026. One of Nielsen’s first points of action was in working with Briatore on the identity of Gasly’s partner for the new season; Jack Doohan had been abruptly bumped from his role after just seven races and replaced with Franco Colapinto ahead of the Imola round, a move forecast long before the season when Colapinto was snaffled from Williams in a reserve role.  

The Argentinian hadn’t particularly shone either, yet Nielsen offered him a second chance, this time with a proper pre-season programme rather than being thrown into the deep end mid-season.

Opting for pull-rod front suspension facilitates the use of a curved-plane wing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Design decisions in 2026 

While many onlookers spent their pre-season cooing over the Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin and its intriguing suspension arrangement, the features of Alpine’s new A526 chassis flew under the radar. Firstly, it was one of only three teams (Williams and Cadillac being the other two) to switch to a pull-rod front suspension layout, in the opposite direction to McLaren’s and Red Bull’s reversion to push-rods.  

This was a decision that allowed Alpine to pursue a curved-plane front wing, with strakes nestled within the raised sections. The theory here is that these generate vorticity further inboard to protect the floor from the turbulent tyre wake, and the use of the pull-rod opens a path for these to slot into.  

Alpine also diverged from the pack with its active aerodynamics package on the rear wing; rather than using the leading-edge lift commonly employed in the DRS era, the new regulations allowed it to push the trailing edge downwards. Audi later implemented a similar solution. 

The early prognosis was positive. During testing Alpine seemed to have at the very least reclaimed its position within the midfield

The team also had Mercedes power to build around, taking its gearbox to allow Alpine more time to develop its own. This gave it a different set of pick-up points to build the rear end around, including the rear suspension package. Minor adjustment for the designers aside, this was crucial in ensuring that the team was no longer hindered by the 20bhp horsepower deficit created by Renault’s power unit. 

The early prognosis was positive. During testing Alpine seemed to have at the very least reclaimed its position within the midfield, although its long-run pace put it a smidgen above the likes of Haas, Racing Bulls, et al. The opening race weekend in Melbourne wasn’t particularly indicative of this, because Alpine had got its deployment sums wrong, but its performance next time out in China was a much better demonstration.  

“It’s a clear step and it’s what we had hoped for,” Nielsen says of the A526. “We had a very good Bahrain test, we were confident coming out of Bahrain, then we went to Australia and it was like, ‘Oh, maybe we’ve made a car that’s only put on one circuit’. So, it’s nice to then do these few races and hopefully again show that we’ve made a step.

Gasly employed what he’s dubbed the best car he’s ever had to hold off Verstappen impressively at Suzuka

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

“And it helps everybody in the factory, everybody in the team, the sponsors, everybody involved in the effort is of course buoyed by increased performance. It all starts with a car. The car starts improving, people believe in the projects, everything starts to get a bit easier. Better people want to come.” 

The Japanese GP at Suzuka exposed a weakness in high-speed conditions. The front end wasn’t biting in the longer-radius corners, but updates in Miami appeared to alleviate the front-rear balancing issues to keep it one step clear of its midfield rivals. Nielsen says that the issue will get full attention ahead of the Catalan GP to cure the problem once and for all. 

“I think that would probably be still our biggest weakness,” he added. “I mean, it’s less of an issue [in Miami] because there aren’t so many high-speed corners, so arguably it plays to our strengths a little bit more than say Barcelona in June. We’ve got a new front wing main plane on, there’ll be more front wing parts coming to Barcelona to try and fix that. We need to go to a track with a lot of high-speed corners to see what happens.” 

Gasly business

Through three years of continued upheaval and disappointment, it must have been difficult for Gasly to keep his chin up and rise above the turmoil. That he has done so with grace is very much a measure of the Frenchman’s endeavour, and he’s been a rare ray of light among the bleaker times of 2024 and 2025. 

Gasly has faced many setbacks through his time in F1: the rise from Toro Rosso to Red Bull before the subsequent fall, the death of his friend and fellow racer Anthoine Hubert, and then the early promise in his move to Alpine suddenly ebbing away at the start of 2024. There are few more deserving of a slice of luck; now, Gasly has a car that he has labelled the best he’s ever driven in F1. 

China probably brought out the best in the driver-team combination, although Gasly reckoned a momentary loss of boost pressure after the safety car restart cost him fifth to Ollie Bearman. He performed admirably at Suzuka too, in fending off former team-mate Max Verstappen for over 30 laps in a faultless display.  

Gasly’s in for the long haul, while Colapinto looks more settled than last season

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Miami was a bit less impressive, and Colapinto appeared to have the edge through the weekend, but Gasly was also denied the opportunity to recover positions in the race after being flipped into the wall by a transmission-less Liam Lawson. You can’t have it all, but it was an unwelcome snub from Lady Luck after a string of impressive races.  

Still, Gasly’s in it for the long haul, and is contracted to the end of 2028. He’s found a home at Enstone, and still believes that it can do what Benetton and Renault had done under Briatore previously: win races, and potentially championships. Lofty ambitions, sure, but at least the team is moving in the right direction. 

A Franco conversation

While Gasly suffered with ill fortune in Miami, Colapinto thrived. His tenure at the team has not been easy, with the weight of expectation from Argentina on his shoulders magnified by the pressure of a fraught 2025.  

When Briatore was brought on board, many theorised that the Italian’s presence was to help broker a sale of the team once the decision was made to scrap Renault’s F1 programme. This hasn’t been in the offing so far, although a 24% minority stake held by Otro Capital is currently up for sale

Perhaps Colapinto had been a victim of his own success after burning brightly at Williams, although the rookie mistakes had soon begun to creep in when trying to push his FW46 too hard. On being parachuted into the Alpine line-up, he had another lemon to contend with and, although he’d booked his place in Q2 first time out at Imola, it came at a significant price: he crashed at the end of Q1.  

Although revered in Argentina, many of the less-supportive home fans had taken to calling him ‘Chocapinto’, ‘chocar’ the Spanish verb ‘to crash’. Biting wit aside, Colapinto has also had to contend with pointed barbs from Briatore, who had questioned the wisdom of his own decision to install the Buenos Aires native in Doohan’s seat. Nielsen’s arrival appears to have calmed the waters. 

With the benefit of actual pre-season testing, Colapinto has looked in finer fettle so far in 2026. It’s not all been plain sailing; Melbourne and Suzuka were tough weekends, but he looked like a canny operator in both China (before getting clouted by Ocon after their stops) and Miami, where he beat Gasly on merit.  

Colapinto looked to have the edge over his team-mate in Miami, although luck wasn’t with Gasly

Photo by: Liam Fabre

“We had a lot of chats with Franco, he was struggling a bit at the beginning [of the year] to match Pierre’s pace,” says Nielsen. “I don’t know whether it was as simple as him having a bit of downtime and going back to Argentina and a bit of a reset! He’s happier with the car [in Miami] than he’s been so far this year, so I hope it continues. Maybe he should go back to Argentina before every race!” 

Consistency is next on Colapinto’s agenda, now that he’s proven he can produce drives worthy of strong top-10 finishes. Many doubted whether the 23-year-old deserved to be in F1, and the jury remains out for some – but he’s showing genuine improvement so far. 

What’s next for Alpine?

Under old management, Alpine (and previously, Renault) had made a rod for its own back with hubristic public disclosures of a “five-year plan” and a “100-race plan”. The new management has recognised that plans cannot simply be willed into succeeding. 

After finishing last in the 2025 constructors’ championship, Alpine has had the benefit of added wind tunnel time to refine its A526 chassis. The challenge will be, assuming it remains fifth by the end of the third aerodynamic testing period (at the end of June), in how it cuts its cloth with reduced simulation time available when the allocations reset. 

If the team can continue to demonstrate success, then it’s as Nielsen stated earlier: it’s about being attractive to the brightest and best technical figures in the paddock. ‘Basketcase’ teams will find recruitment more difficult, while a stable and upwardly mobile operation enjoys a much greater pull in the job market.  

Yet its long-term aspirations remain unknown. When Briatore was brought on board, many theorised that the Italian’s presence was to help broker a sale of the team once the decision was made to scrap Renault’s F1 programme. This hasn’t been in the offing so far, although a 24% minority stake held by Otro Capital is currently up for sale. Mercedes was known to be one of the potential interested buyers. 

Regardless, continued stability is the only way to keep Alpine performing. External management has tinkered with the team for far too long, attempting to press a structure antithetical to the requirements of F1 into the team – and it hasn’t worked. So far, the Briatore-Nielsen axis is producing results. Those holding the purse strings must leave it be.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the July 2026 issue and subscribe today. 

Gasly finished third on the road in Monaco, got penalised, then a successful appeal restored his podium position

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