{"id":148218,"date":"2025-09-16T20:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148218\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:48:14","slug":"alpine-in-a-very-dark-tunnel-after-short-lived-flavio-briatore-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148218\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine in a \u2018very dark tunnel\u2019 after short-lived Flavio Briatore boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former F1 steward Johnny Herbert has admitted he\u2019s \u2018puzzled\u2019 by Alpine\u2019s poor 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

Alpine\u00a0languish at the bottom of the F1 constructors\u2019 championship, cut adrift from the teams ahead.<\/p>\n

Alpine have been mostly hampered by their underpowered Renault power unit.<\/p>\n

While their driver line-up drama hasn\u2019t helped their chances.<\/p>\n

Neither Franco Colapinto<\/a> nor Jack Doohan <\/a>have scored a point so far this season.<\/p>\n

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Pierre Gasly <\/a>has scored all 20 of Alpine\u2019s points in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0Racing Tipster<\/a>, Herbert conceded Alpine are in a \u201cvery dark\u201d tunnel that will be hard to get out of.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot good. And at the moment it\u2019s not as if there is a potential light at the end of the tunnel. It does seem to be a very long tunnel and it\u2019s very dark,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really puzzling place for them to be in, considering the success they\u2019ve had in the past because they\u2019re just not able to put themselves anywhere near a chance of getting in the top six, let alone the top three.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a little bit of an uplift when Flavio came in and they were doing quite well. But that just all petered out.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s just not happening. I think it\u2019s to do with what is happening behind the scenes where the mindset you need isn\u2019t quite there. The competitiveness in F1 is so great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t seem to have the right direction and the direction can only come from the people that have the right understanding and mindset of what they need to do to be able to improve upon the horrible, difficult car that they have at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not a good place to see them at. It\u2019s not something you would have expected either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gasly commits to Alpine<\/p>\n

During the Italian Grand Prix weekend, Alpine confirmed that Gasly had signed a new deal keeping him at the team until 2027.<\/p>\n

The immediate future should be more fruitful for Alpine.<\/p>\n

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They have abandoned their works engine project for 2026 and will race with Mercedes power.<\/p>\n

\"Pierre <\/p>\n

Pierre Gasly, Alpine<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0XPB Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been widely reported that Mercedes will have the best power unit at the start of the new regulations in 2026.<\/p>\n

As a result, it\u2019s hard to see Alpine struggle at the bottom of the standings next year.<\/p>\n

The identity of Gasly\u2019s teammate for 2026 is still unclear.<\/p>\n

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Colapinto hasn\u2019t impressed, but Alpine\u2019s options are limited after Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez signed for Cadillac.<\/p>\n

Alpine could turn to Yuki Tsunoda if he\u2019s dropped by Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, Alpine junior Paul Aron has impressed during his various outings for the team.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former F1 steward Johnny Herbert has admitted he\u2019s \u2018puzzled\u2019 by Alpine\u2019s poor 2025 campaign. Alpine\u00a0languish at the bottom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[821,64,63,817,806,805,803,804,1513,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-148218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-alpine","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-pierre-gasly","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}