Alpine executive technical director David Sanchez says he is encouraged by the team’s rate of development on their 2026 car.
The Renault-owned team are enduring a difficult season in 2025, currently sitting tenth and last in the constructors’ championship standings on 19 points – ten fewer than closest rivals Haas.
Alpine saw the sudden departure of team principal Oliver Oakes early into the season, with Steve Nielsen appointed to oversee the day-to-day operation of the team earlier this month. Despite Gasly scoring points on four occasions in 2025 – including a sixth place at the most recent round in Great Britain – Alpine’s 2025 car has proven challenging for its drivers this season with neither Jack Doohan nor Franco Colapinto recording a top ten finish.
Sanchez believes the team has been exposed by how many of their rivals have pursued similar design concepts for this year’s cars.
“We know what we’ve designed and developed – which we’re happy with,” he told media including RaceFans. “But what we’re seeing is there is so much convergence between all the cars this year compared to last year that some of our weaknesses are magnified by an order of magnitude. So that’s what we’re trying to deal with at the moment.”
Alpine are having to compromise on their aerodynamic set-up at certain tracks, Sanchez explained, in order to make up for shortcomings in other areas of their car performance.
“I tell people ‘downforce is like paracetamol – it fixes every problem’,” he said.
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“I think the downforce that we have somehow, in high-speed corners, I think we’re not too shy. We know we’re on the back foot with energy recovery. Some races like Silverstone we are exposed and this is sometimes biasing our choices of downforce levels. In Austria we made some choices to try and be a bit racier, but this of course puts a bit more stress on our rear tyres and the consequences are quite heavy.”
The team has indicated it will cease development on its 2025 A525 chassis and focus all its efforts on its car for the major technical regulations changes in 2026. Sanchez says that the team is already seeing the benefits of sacrificing development on this season’s car to concentrate efforts on next season.
“We know that for us there are big opportunities in 2026,” he explained. “We may not have been pushing so deep in the season with developments like some others, but when we see how next year’s car is evolving – and the rate is quite high – we are quite happy with our choice.”
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