Alpine now targets McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari: “We have the potential to be in that pack”

Pierre Gasly believes the Alpine Formula 1 team has the required potential to challenge the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull in the 2026 season.

After spending the 2025 campaign as a clear backmarker, the Enstone-based outfit ended its engine programme, switching to Mercedes powertrains. It fully focused on its 2026 car early on last year and appears to have bounced back into the midfield.

In the Australian Grand Prix, Alpine’s lead driver Gasly narrowly beat childhood friend-turned-rival Esteban Ocon to the last available point in 10th.

Gasly then had a remarkable Shanghai weekend; the Frenchman took seventh in both qualifying sessions, outqualifying the Red Bulls in the process, but dropped down to 11th in the sprint amid excessive tyre degradation. On Sunday, however, he raced to sixth position, equalling the team’s best result since he finished fifth in the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix.

“It's definitely encouraging for the whole team to see that in some sessions we can be fourth-fastest,” the Frenchman said on Saturday. “Obviously, it's very close behind, and the gap in front of us, I mean, looking at today with three tenths to the McLaren… they are not miles ahead, so we’ve just got to focus on our thing and keep bringing performance, and hopefully we can slowly join that pack ahead of us.”

Asked whether his Chinese performance matched what the team expected following pre-season testing, Gasly replied: “I'm not going to lie, a bit better.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

“Looking at the Red Bull I'm a bit confused with their pace, because when you see them in the second row in Melbourne, they were basically taking it to the McLaren.” Red Bull’s lead driver Max Verstappen was over a second slower than polesetter Kimi Antonelli and 0.14s down on Gasly in the main qualifying session.

“We don't think we're quite there yet, so I think they just seem to have dropped a tiny bit this weekend, we made a step forward. I think generally I'm pretty pleased with what I've seen this weekend, that we have the potential to be in that pack.

“But once again, things are going to move very quickly this season and it's important for us to move fast as well and faster than the others, make sure we stay in the right train for the rest of the year.”

In the grand prix, Gasly comfortably held fifth place, over five seconds ahead of team-mate Franco Colapinto, when the race was neutralised by the safety car after Lance Stroll stopped on track.

Gasly was overtaken by Oliver Bearman at the restart – “for some reason I didn't have the power or boost” – and was unable to fight back despite seemingly slightly better performance. He finished sixth, two seconds behind the Haas and 21 seconds ahead of seventh-placed Liam Lawson.

“Deep inside me, the very competitive Pierre is a little annoyed not to get that P5,” the Frenchman admitted, feeling hard done by the safety car intervention.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

“Looking at ‘25 where we were and where we are now, it's a completely different league, so I'm very pleased. We did a good job in qualifying, a couple of tenths on the McLaren. The first stint I wasn't losing massive ground compared to the Ferrari. There's still many little things which we need to fine-tune and fix, which are not like unfixable limitations.

“So, I'm pretty confident. China was special. Hopefully, the performance will be quite similar to here in the coming races.”

Gasly is adamant his Melbourne performance wasn’t representative, arguing “if we come back in Melbourne right now, I’ll be in Q3”, and is now setting his sights on loftier goals, as he leads the likes of Verstappen and Oscar Piastri with seventh in the drivers’ championship.

“We've got some limitations with the car, which we're working on, and I feel this weekend we've definitely made a step forward, not with parts, but for whatever reason, small tweaks we've done on the car,” he said. “We see we have some performance and we know we still have a lot of performance to find in a few areas with the current package we've got.

“The target is just to hopefully create a bit of a gap with the guys behind and come knock at the heels of the guys in front and hopefully join the battle. Whether it will be achievable, I don't know. But all I know is the guys are working really hard and there is more coming. Just this, in itself, is enough to bring some excitement to me.”