{"id":585549,"date":"2026-04-04T19:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585549\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:09:09","slug":"pierre-gasly-sets-ambitious-f1-summer-break-target-for-alpine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585549\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierre Gasly sets ambitious F1 summer break target for Alpine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pierre Gasly<\/a> wants to see Alpine fighting the likes of Ferrari and McLaren after promising start to the 2026 Formula 1<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

The Anglo-French marque has endured better prospects in F1\u2019s latest era than it did with the erstwhile ground effects cars. <\/p>\n

Alpine finished the 2025 campaign, dead last, with 22 points to its name over 24 races. This year, the opening three rounds have seen the team score 15 points already. Naturally, the A526 has potential to be unlocked. <\/p>\n

With a Mercedes power unit for the first time, the Enstone-based team has a strong package under its belts, but not enough to hope to dislodge the Silver Arrows \u2013 the runway leaders so far. <\/p>\n

Gasly, however, believes that the team can go as far as challenging the trailing pack of McLaren and Ferrari. The 2020 Italian GP winner hopes this can be possible by the end of the summer break no less.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think to me, it\u2019s not going to happen over the course of a month,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I would like to see ourselves after the summer break being a bit more of a player in that group with McLaren and Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Japan, the gap was still too big for me to really take part in that fight, but seven seconds over 28 laps, you\u2019re looking at three-fourth tenths, and I think that\u2019s where we need to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PierrePierre Gasly battled Max Verstappen hard in Suzuka<\/p>\n

\\Pierre Gasly outlines promising insights for Alpine already in F1 2026<\/p>\n

The race at the Suzuka International Circuit, last weekend, saw Gasly mount an astute defence for P7 against his former Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

That said, the Frenchman rued failing to make any inroads into Lewis Hamilton\u2019s lead in P6 up ahead. <\/p>\n

Gasly has identified the driveability of the A526, in race trim, as the key deficit it faces to its hopeful rivals up the grid. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe car was a bit tricky in the race, I wasn\u2019t as comfortable as in quali,\u201d he added. \u201cI was struggling a bit in high speed, which we know is a bit of a limitation for us at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Alpine, this battle to climb up the grid is already half-won, Gasly surmised. <\/p>\n

With arguably the benchmark of the field powering its chassis, Alpine need only focus its resources on optimising its aerodynamics to make meaningful gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we know what we\u2019ve got to improve, which is good,\u201d Gasly explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we don\u2019t need to care about the power unit, we get the best of what is out there, and we just need to focus on our chassis and what we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got a good package, we\u2019ve just got to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpine\u2019s marked advantage over rivals this season<\/p>\n

Another encouraging sign for Alpine is the overall competitiveness of its package on different types of circuits. <\/p>\n

At Australia, a certain outlier, Gasly was able to get into the top 10. In China, a power circuit, the Frenchman took the chequered flag in sixth. Japan, a rather technical track, saw Gasly finish in the points on a third consecutive occasion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy because the car seems to work on all types of tracks really, so I think there\u2019s definitely a good boost of confidence,\u201d he concluded. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been at the factory yet, but hopefully, they all enjoy seeing us fighting for this type of position. It\u2019s quite different to last year, and hopefully, it gives that boost to really put the work in and get ourselves in even better shape in the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five weeks before the Miami GP<\/a> will be a crucial period for the Enstone-based team to begin its charge towards the very front of the field. <\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Pierre Gasly details the \u2018different league\u2019 Alpine is reaching in F1 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pierre Gasly wants to see Alpine fighting the likes of Ferrari and McLaren after promising start to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[821,64,63,817,813,816,1513,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-585549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-alpine","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-pierre-gasly","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585549","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=585549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}