The 'injury' stalling an early F1 2026 disappointment

Alpine has likened its situation to 'carrying an injury' while it works on fast-tracking an upgrade to dial out a high-speed handling imbalance that has hurt its start to the 2026 Formula 1 season.

The team hoped that a switch to Mercedes customer engines this year would help lift it towards the front of the F1 midfield after it finished 2025 at the bottom of the standings.

But drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto had a disappointing Australia Grand Prix as they failed to make it out of Q2.

While Gasly did manage to grab a point in the race with a 10th-place finish, the team is aware that it is not fulfilling its potential right now.

The main headache it is facing is a high-speed handling issue which is costing it valuable laptime, especially in qualifying.

While the cause has not been revealed, the fact it is manifesting itself as understeer points to a front wing weakness, with this area of the car believed to be a key focal point for developments.

Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen said the first evidence of the problem had appeared in pre-season testing, and work had long been under way to resolve it.

"We have high-speed understeer," he explained in Melbourne. "We saw some of that in Bahrain [testing].

"But the characteristics of this circuit [Albert Park] means there's more high speed, so that problem becomes bigger.

"We do understand it. We have got parts coming, and hopefully that will fix it. But they won't be on the car in China.

"So it's an injury we're carrying at the moment, that I wish we weren't. But I think we know how to get up to it."

Nielsen hoped that the upgrades being worked on will be ready for the Japanese GP at Suzuka later this month.

The step forward Alpine hopes that brings appears to carry even more significance as Nielsen felt the team's form at the season opener was not helped by some of its closest competitors bringing upgrades.

"We came here from Bahrain with expectations to be racing below the points, but more strongly than it turned out that we were," he said.

"It was nice to get a point, and Pierre drove like a hero, which is great, but some of our competitors put upgrades on between the Bahrain test and here. We haven't.

"So we need do something about that. We've got performance coming. We need to get it on the car because we were just not quick enough."

Although Melbourne did not live up to expectations for Alpine, Gasly was convinced there is potential in the package to deliver a good leap forward in pace.

He said: "We're far from being at the maximum potential of the car we have, in all aspects: energy, tyre, chassis, set-up.

"It's just such a big change that it's almost like you've got to reset all your references, and it's a very different track to Bahrain."

Nielsen was also clear that it's not the Mercedes engine that's holding back Alpine, in the same way McLaren and Williams have pointed to an engine knowledge deficit.

“I can't lay any blame at the door of the PU. I think what was there, four Mercedes cars in the top six in qualifying or something," he said.

"That's not our issue.”