Briatore “not happy at all” with Alpine’s “very weak” performance

Alpine’s performance in the first race of 2026 came as a major disappointment to the team’s executive advisor, Flavio Briatore.

The team finished last in the 2025 championship after sacrificing car development in order to focus on preparing for the new technical regulations which came into force this year. It scrapped its in-house engine programme and switched to using Mercedes power units.

However neither Alpine driver was able to reach Q3 in Melbourne. Briatore admitted their performance fell short of expectations.

“We are not happy at all,” he said. “Our performance was very weak and it was a combination of different factors.

“We know what is the major problem we have in the car,” he said. “We are trying to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

Pierre Gasly brought some cheer to the team by salvaging the final point for 10th place. The team only scored once over the final 11 rounds of last season.

“It was the first race and for a long time we had no points in the race in Formula 1,” said Briatore. “At least we have one point with Pierre.”

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He said the team is “looking to be P7, P8, P6 – this range of competition” more frequently in the future.

Gasly believes the team was “pretty far from being at the maximum potential of the package we’ve got in our hands” in Australia.

“There are a lot of things which we’ve got to improve car-wise: car understanding, set-up-wise, engine, maximising the energy, quali, race. I think it’s good to have some sort of baseline.

“Objectively, we feel that we slightly underperformed in Melbourne and I expect us to be in a better place here in China. We’ve got already a couple of things which should bring us more performance into the car, like everybody, I think, in the paddock.”

Gasly was 10th quickest in the first practice session, just under two seconds slower than pace-setter George Russell.

2026 Australian Grand Prix

• Briatore “not happy at all” with Alpine’s “very weak” performance
• Drivers want rules changes to cut “dangerous” risk of crash at start
• Russell becomes the 68th different Formula 1 driver to lead the world championship
• Hadjar told Red Bull his car’s performance was “embarrassing” and “just c***”
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