Alpine has made ‘a much better car’ but pecking order unclear

Steve Nielsen is refusing to make bold predictions – but the Alpine managing director is leaving little doubt that the team’s new-era car represents a far sharper weapon than the one that dragged the French outfit to the bottom of the standings last year.

The confidence is there at Enstone, even if the exact pecking order remains wrapped in pre-season mystery.

After years of consistent top-six finishes, Alpine’s dramatic slide to last place in 2025 forced a philosophical reset.

The team shifted its focus early to the sweeping new regulations, sacrificing short-term competitiveness in pursuit of a longer-term rebound. Now, with fresh machinery on track, the gamble is beginning to look less like desperation and more like calculated patience.

Confidence Without Certainty

Valuable mileage from Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto has produced encouraging murmurs inside the garage, but Nielsen remains deliberately guarded when it comes to outright claims.

“Pretty confident,” he said when queried on his sentiment after last week’s running in Bahrain.

“It’s probably quite a dull answer, but we’re working through the programme, trying to understand what everyone else is doing, trying to second guess what their pace is, what our pace is.

“Very new cars, a lot of new things to learn. You’ve probably heard a lot of people talk about energy recovery and deployment; it’s a big learning curve for us, the drivers.

“How you use that has a huge effect on lap times on so on. So, there’s a lot of new stuff to understand, and drivers are having to drive in a completely different way than they used to.

“Honestly, I’m not really sure where we stack up. I think we’ve made a much better car than last year – well, I know we have. But, if the race was tomorrow, where we’d line up, I don’t know. I think reasonably strong midfield, but I don’t know.”

It’s a blend of realism and quiet defiance – an admission that Alpine’s new challenger could be either a midfield disruptor or simply a solid step forward. The suspense is part of the narrative.

Power Unit Spark

Where hesitation gives way to conviction is beneath the engine cover. The partnership with Mercedes appears to have injected genuine momentum into Alpine’s rebuild.

“I think we’re happy with our PU supplier,” the Britain said. “That’s one area where we’ve definitely made big gains, yeah.”

Looking ahead, Nielsen expects the second Bahrain test to provide more clarity on Alpine’s standing, particularly once teams begin running lower fuel loads and longer stints.

“We’re all doing the same, we’ve all got programmes. I don’t think anybody’s run low fuel yet – I think you’ll probably see that [at the final test],” he added.

“We did see a long run from Ferrari, a couple of other people, and the long runs are what help build the picture, because if someone’s done 20 laps, they definitely had a certain amount of fuel in at the start of it, for example. The more long runs you get, the more picture you can build.”

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For Alpine, the narrative is shaping up as one of measured progress: a car with tangible improvements and a team slowly rediscovering its rhythm, even if the full picture of the championship battle has yet to emerge.

With further testing expected to reveal clearer competitive signals, Alpine’s current stance is one of restrained swagger – uncertain of exact position, but increasingly certain it is no longer standing still.

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