Alpine ‘quite happy’ with early development switch to 2026 car

Alpine technical director David Sanchez has no regrets over the team’s decision to cut short development on its troubled 2025 car, describing it as a necessary move to seize greater opportunities under the sweeping regulation changes arriving in 2026.

The Enstone-based squad, currently languishing at the bottom of the constructors’ championship with just 19 points, has faced a challenging 2025 campaign, marked by performance issues and a mid-season leadership change.

On the track, Alpine’s drivers have struggled, with Pierre Gasly securing points in four races, including a notable sixth-place finish at the British Grand Prix, while Franco Colapinto, who replaced Jack Doohan after six races, has yet to break into the top ten.

Yet amid the setbacks, Sanchez believes Alpine has taken the right course of action in limiting further updates to this year’s car in order to accelerate work on its all-important 2026 design.

2026 Car Progress “Quite Encouraging”

“We know that for us there are big opportunities in 2026,” Sanchez recently told the media. “We may not have been pushing so deep in the season with developments like some others, but when we see how next year’s car is evolving – and the rate is quite high – we are quite happy with our choice.”

Alpine’s current woes have been compounded by leadership changes off the track, with team principal Oliver Oakes departing early in the year and F1 veteran Steve Nielsen stepping in to oversee operations. On-track, Sanchez said the team’s development direction had inadvertently exposed some of their weaknesses relative to rivals.

“We know what we’ve designed and developed – which we’re happy with,” Sanchez said.

“But what we’re seeing is there is so much convergence between all the cars this year compared to last year that some of our weaknesses are magnified by an order of magnitude. So that’s what we’re trying to deal with at the moment.”

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Sanchez noted that certain aerodynamic trade-offs have become unavoidable as the team attempts to work around inherent limitations in the car’s performance package.

“I tell people ‘downforce is like paracetamol – it fixes every problem’,” he said.

“I think the downforce that we have somehow, in high-speed corners, I think we’re not too shy. We know we’re on the back foot with energy recovery.

“Some races like Silverstone we are exposed and this is sometimes biasing our choices of downforce levels. In Austria we made some choices to try and be a bit racier, but this of course puts a bit more stress on our rear tyres and the consequences are quite heavy.”

With just over a year before the next technical overhaul reshapes the competitive landscape, Sanchez is optimistic that Alpine’s early pivot could pay dividends down the road.

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