Gasly calls Alpine’s Zandvoort upgrades “critical” in midfield fight

Alpine’s development deficit comes into focus

Pierre Gasly believes Alpine’s upgrades at the Dutch Grand Prix are critical to the team’s hopes of maintaining its position in the Formula 1 midfield, after rivals steadily closed the performance gap.

Alpine began the 2026 campaign as the leading midfield team and sat fifth in the standings after the Monaco round, where Gasly secured a contentious podium. The result left the French outfit just 19 points behind fourth-placed Red Bull.

That advantage has since disappeared. Across the five grands prix after Monaco, Alpine scored less ground than its rivals and is now five points behind Racing Bulls. The team has not introduced an upgrade package since the Miami round, while Audi has scored in each of the last three races. Aston Martin, meanwhile, reached Q2 in Hungary for the first time this season after bringing a heavily revised car.

Zandvoort package carries immediate pressure

Alpine’s next opportunity arrives at Zandvoort from 21 to 23 August. Managing director Steve Nielsen has confirmed that the car will receive “some pretty big new aero parts”, placing significant importance on the package’s performance from the moment it reaches the circuit.

“Standard of Formula 1, I think if you bring upgrades you expect it to definitely get better,” Gasly said after failing to score in Budapest. “On my side, I'm not doubting that it's going to do what the team expect, but as you say it's important because Aston Martin improved by two seconds this weekend, they have another engine coming [in Zandvoort], Racing Bulls improved by seconds in the start of the year, Audi as well.”

The wider development race is also becoming more significant because the 2026 ruleset is still new. Alpine has previously struggled to sustain progress: during the ground-effect era, it began 2022 as the fourth-best team before slipping to the back by 2025 as its upgrade path faltered.

That history makes the Zandvoort package more than a routine step. It is Alpine’s attempt to stop the slide and protect its championship target. Recent coverage of Aston Martin’s planned Honda power-unit debut at Zandvoort underlines the scale of the challenge facing Gasly’s team.

Gasly has failed to score in three of the last four races and says the problem is now visible in both qualifying and race pace.

“It’s been a couple of races where it’s kind of the same story in quali: [position] 12, 13 behind Racing Bulls and Audi,” he said. “In the race it’s like somehow you think that maybe we’re going to be there and then I can see them, but it’s just pure pace and we are not there.”

He added that the A526 is not responding as he needs, leaving Alpine with “quite a few things to fix” before the Dutch Grand Prix.