An eighth-place finish in Montreal looks like a success for Alpine—but the result masks a deep-seated problem that Pierre Gasly still faces
On paper, Alpine’s upward trend continues. Eighth place at the Canadian Grand Prix marks an important step forward for the team in the 2026 season. But in a race marked by numerous retirements, the Frenchman’s latest points finish masked a bitter truth: the fundamental problems that have been holding him back for the past two race weekends are by no means solved.
Gasly was among the top performers in the first races of the season. But since Alpine introduced upgrades for the A526 in Miami and Montreal, he has experienced a noticeable setback. During the two sprint weekends, he was beaten by his teammate Franco Colapinto in qualifying four times in a row—and has since complained about his car’s completely altered, mysterious handling.
The data puzzle: No traction in the corners
“It’s been the same story since the very first practice lap in Miami,” Gasly revealed on Sunday evening. “We can see it in the data; the problem is completely obvious. We now need to understand exactly where it’s coming from. That will be a major part of the work we have to do before Monaco.”
The Frenchman simply lacks confidence in the A526, specifically when accelerating out of slow corners. The lack of traction makes it extremely difficult for him to push the car to its absolute limit.
Parc fermé breach and the search for the cause
After a disastrous Sprint Qualifying session, which Gasly finished only in 19th place, Alpine took radical action: The team breached the parc fermé rules to try out various setup changes. It was the start of a disciplinary process. To get to the bottom of the cause, the team even reverted Gasly’s car to an older underbody.
However, it remained unclear how far Gasly could have moved up the grid in regular qualifying. A collision with a marmot in Q1 damaged his car so severely that his day was over early in Q2, while Colapinto made it through to Q3. Incidentally, this also explains why Gasly and his team didn’t make a big fuss about being hindered by Lewis Hamilton—which may have spared the Ferrari driver a grid penalty.
Upgrade works—but why not for Gasly?
A glance at the other side of the garage shows that Alpine’s aerodynamic updates are fundamentally working. A visibly confident Colapinto has been thriving since Miami. Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that the new parts have altered the car’s characteristics to such an extent that Gasly no longer harmonizes with them.
“We’ve made a few adjustments to the upgrades since Miami so that they now work. As a team, we’re pretty happy with them,” explained Gasly. “On my end, we tried out a lot of different parts during the sprint. Today, I was back on the track with the old underbody again.”
The conclusion of the weekend: “We now have a good understanding and can rule out certain parts as the cause. Nevertheless, it will be important to analyze the whole thing even more deeply and understand exactly at the factory how we can regain this performance.”
Damage control on the “worst track”
With its stop-and-go nature and the many chicanes leading onto long straights, the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was arguably the worst possible track for Gasly’s specific problem. To make matters worse, in the early stages of the cold Canadian Grand Prix, he also struggled to get his medium tires up to temperature and lost touch with the group ahead of him.
However, the fact that this is purely a traction problem also explains why the crisis escalated primarily in qualifying—where Gasly has to squeeze every last thousandth of a second out of the car—yet he was still able to fight his way up to eighth place in Sunday’s race. For him, it was ultimately a “good damage control.”
No panic at Alpine: root cause analysis underway at the factory
Steve Nielsen, Managing Director of Alpine, promised that the team won’t give up, but at the same time praised the Enstone crew for their composure: “Pierre was unhappy with the car’s balance all weekend. He was lacking a bit of downforce compared to the other car.”
“We don’t really know why yet, but during the race the problem seemed to have vanished. We need to look closely at the details and figure out what happened. But the team didn’t panic, they dug in and secured the result.”
When asked whether it was a fundamental problem with the chassis, Gasly replied pragmatically: “I don’t think it’s that simple. Right now, I just feel what I feel, and we can see the difference in the data.”
However, he rules out a pure setup issue: “Whether it’s a component or something else in the setup—it’s a very small difference, but one that doesn’t explain the extent of the problem on the track. There could be many causes. That’s why we need more time and have to completely dismantle the car back at the factory. The potential is there, but since Miami, my traction has changed drastically. And we have to get it back to where it was before.”
