(Motorsport-Total.com) – According to Pierre Gasly and Colapinto, Alpine was overtaken by the Racing Bulls in the weeks leading up to the summer break. Both drivers emphasize that this was simply due to the further development of the car: The Red Bull sister team brought more and also more effective upgrades than the team from Enstone.
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Accordingly, the hopes that Alpine now places in its own upgrade package for Zandvoort are high.
On a personal level, however, Colapinto has found his rhythm since the April break. Previously, the gap to Gasly was often larger than he had wished, but since the race in Miami, the Argentine has scored points five times and crossed the finish line on Sundays four times ahead of his French teammate.
These results again match the feeling Colapinto had during the winter tests in Bahrain. However, the first race weekends afterwards proved to be tough – a drop in performance that Colapinto and the team at the time could hardly explain.
Good feeling, no pace
“I think driving a new car – or rather two new cars – was something different than testing. During the winter tests, I felt extremely strong and comfortable, but as soon as we switched to two cars for the first races, I really struggled,” Colapinto explains in an exclusive interview with the global edition of Motorsport.com, a sister platform of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network.
When asked what exactly changed when the team switched to two chassis for Melbourne, Colapinto clarifies: It was less about how the car felt and more about what the stopwatch showed. “It wasn’t that the feeling was gone – especially the pace was gone.”
“I still felt good in the car, but when I looked at the lap times, that was the point I really couldn’t understand or grasp,” says the Argentine.
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This made analyzing the first race weekends extremely difficult. Colapinto emphasizes that while he still felt comfortable behind the wheel, this driving feeling simply no longer reflected in the lap times he had actually expected.
“I think the most important thing for a driver is always to understand why things happen. And to be honest: In the first races, I very often just couldn’t comprehend it.”
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In Miami, Colapinto finally received a new, lighter chassis – although he emphasizes that he does not want to imply that there was anything wrong with the previous one. The problem was simply difficult to isolate in Alpine’s overall package.
“I don’t know if something was wrong. But when we brought the entire package together after the first three races, everything just got better – and the half a tenth I lost per corner was suddenly gone.”
“It’s hard to say exactly what happened or what it was due to. When you change many things at once, it’s hard to say: This is exactly the reason why we are now faster,” says the Alpine driver. “It’s like with several setup changes: When you’re faster afterwards, you don’t really know which adjustment brought the biggest improvement.”
More detailed analysis during the April break
The big upgrade package and the new chassis both played a role – with the team believing that the latter also had a psychological effect. In addition, the April break contributed to what can be called the Miami breakthrough.
During this race-free month, Colapinto and the engineers had more time to analyze all the data in detail. The Argentine highlights that especially in energy management, one of the key factors of the 2026 season, great progress was made: “Yes, I think energy management is a key element where we are now really very consistent.”
“In Japan, I lost four tenths from one lap to the next – just because I delivered the energy differently or was different on the throttle when accelerating out of the last corner,” he says. “I think after that race we became much more consistent in that. That’s one of the steps we have taken as a team.”
“And personally: I was probably quite inconsistent in Japan as well. So these insights have helped me enormously.”
All this contributed to Colapinto being able to take the next step and race again on par with Gasly. The next development step from Alpine is now expected in Zandvoort: With this upgrade package, the French racing team hopes to find the right answer to Racing Bulls and generally add more pace.
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