{"id":863507,"date":"2026-08-19T08:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863507\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:02:12","slug":"alpine-bring-upgrades-to-their-car-for-dutch-grand-prix-as-formula-1-midfield-battle-intensifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863507\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine bring upgrades to their car for Dutch Grand Prix as Formula 1 midfield battle intensifies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine&#8217;s Managing Director Steve Nielsen revealed that the team have brought some upgrades for their A526 for this weekend&#8217;s Dutch Grand Prix.Nielsen has pointed out how close the battle in the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Formula 1<\/a> midfield is in 2026 and hopes that their upgrades will help them improve in Zandvoort while also revealing plans for more parts.<\/p>\n<p>Previewing the Dutch Grand Prix, Nielsen said: &#8220;Our focus is fully on racing this weekend in Zandvoort as we resume the season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have said many times that we are in a close championship fight, and if we are able to bring performance to our car, we can achieve our objective by the end of the season. We have a few upgrades available this weekend, which we will run on the car in Practice ahead of Sprint Qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The plan is to bring more as and when we can, and hopefully it will be enough to put us in the on-track fight to score as many points as possible,&#8221; Nielsen concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Gasly&#8217;s nice memories from Zandvoort<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gasly-zandvoort-2023.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"gasly zandvoort 2023\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Alpine driver Pierre Gasly is happy to return to Zandvoort, where he bagged his first podium with Alpine, he said:\u00a0&#8220;I have very nice memories of Zandvoort, as it&#8217;s where I had my first podium with the team back in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That was certainly a memorable day where we had to make the right decisions throughout the entire race, and I just had to keep calm behind the wheel with such variety in the conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is nice to be going back into race week after a few weeks off,&#8221; the Frenchman went on. &#8220;It&#8217;s always a really good time of year where we can reflect and spend much-needed time with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now I am ready to go and begin this next phase of the season,&#8221; he declared. &#8220;We have a big task ahead of us, as it&#8217;s very close in the Championship, and we know if we can deliver upgrades, we can really stay in the fight with our rivals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will be a big challenge, and I am ready for it beginning with the Sprint in Zandvoort,&#8221; Gasly concluded.<\/p>\n<p>As for the other Alpine driver,\u00a0Franco Colapinto, he revealed he had a shorter summer break than his rivals as he did some testing following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandprix247.com\/f1-opinion\/hungarian-grand-prix-takeaways-the-return-of-the-champions\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hungarian Grand Prix<\/a>.Colapinto looking to put disappointing first half of the season behind<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/colapinto-hungary-2026-6a6386331d54d.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Colapinto-Hungary-2026\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really excited to get back racing after a well-needed summer break,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I started my holidays a bit later than everyone else as I was finishing the Pirelli tyre test in Hungary, but after that I was able to properly relax and recharge my batteries after the really intense first half of the season. We ended a bit disappointed, which I was able to reflect on because it shows how far we have come as a team from this position last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To now be fighting for fifth in the Constructors&#8217; Championship is really impressive, and we all really want to do a great job and secure the result for the team. There is a long way to go still, so we need to start on the front foot in Zandvoort this weekend. The circuit is one I really enjoy, and I remember it well from junior single-seaters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will be interesting to see what it&#8217;s like as a Sprint weekend, and we need to start well on Friday morning so we can find a rhythm and push to the limits early on as we aim for a return to the top-10,&#8221; the Argentine concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Alpine are currently sixth in the 2026 Formula 1 Constructors&#8217; Championship with 61 points, five less than Racing Bulls in fifth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alpine&#8217;s Managing Director Steve Nielsen revealed that the team have brought some upgrades for their A526 for this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1035,49,48,33614,578,28673,576,577,82,59857],"class_list":["post-863507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alpine","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dutch-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-zandvoort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}