– On paper, the upward trend for Alpine continues. Eighth place at the Canadian Grand Prix marks an important step forward for the team in the 2026 season. But in a race marked by many retirements, the Frenchman’s latest points result disguised a bitter truth: The fundamental problems that have been holding him back for two race weekends are by no means solved.
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Gasly was one of the absolute performers in the first races of the season. But since Alpine introduced upgrades for the A526 in Miami and Montreal, he has experienced a noticeable setback. At the two sprint weekends, he had to concede qualifying to his teammate Franco Colapinto four times in a row – and has since complained about a completely changed, mysterious driving behavior of his car.
The data mystery: No traction in the corners
“It’s the same story since the very first practice lap in Miami,” Gasly revealed on Sunday evening. “We see it in the data, the problem is completely obvious. We now have to understand exactly where it comes from. That will be a major part of the work we have to do before Monaco.”
The Frenchman simply lacks confidence in the A526, more precisely when accelerating out of slow corners. The lack of traction makes it extremely difficult for him to push the car to the absolute limit.
Parc-fermé breach and the search for the cause
After a disastrous sprint qualifying, which Gasly finished only in 19th place, Alpine took radical consequences: The team broke the parc fermé rules to try various setup changes. It was the beginning of an elimination process. To get to the bottom of the cause, the team even reverted Gasly’s car to an older floor.
Photo gallery: Montreal: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
How far Gasly could have gone forward in regular qualifying remained unclear, however. A collision with a groundhog in Q1 damaged his car so badly that Q2 ended prematurely, while Colapinto made it into Q3. This also explains why Gasly and his team did not make a big fuss about him being held up by Lewis Hamilton – which possibly saved the Ferrari driver from a grid penalty.
Upgrade works – but why not for Gasly?
The fact that Alpine’s aerodynamic updates basically work is shown by looking at the other side of the garage. A visibly confident Colapinto has been flourishing since Miami. Nevertheless, it is not excluded that the new parts have changed the car’s characteristics so much that Gasly no longer harmonizes with them.
“Since Miami, we have made a few adjustments to the upgrades so that they now work. As a team, we are quite satisfied with that,” Gasly explained. “On my side, we tried a lot in the sprint regarding the parts. Today, I was again running with the old floor.”
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The conclusion of the weekend: “We now have a good understanding and can exclude certain parts as the cause. Nevertheless, it will be important to analyze everything even deeper and understand exactly in the factory how we can regain this performance.”
Damage control on the “worst track”
The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, with its stop-and-go character and many chicanes leading to long straights, was probably the worst possible track for Gasly’s specific problem. To make matters worse, he also struggled in the early phase of the cold Canadian Grand Prix to get his medium tires up to temperature and lost contact with the group ahead of him.
That it is purely a traction problem also explains why the crisis escalates especially in qualifying – where Gasly has to squeeze the last thousandth of a second out of the car – but he was still able to fight his way up to eighth place in the race on Sunday. For him, it was in the end “good damage control”.
No panic at Alpine: Investigating the causes in the factory
Steve Nielsen, Managing Director of Alpine, promised that the team will not let up, but at the same time praised the squad from Enstone for their calm: “Pierre was dissatisfied with the balance of the car all weekend. He lacked some downforce compared to the other car.”
“We still don’t really know why, but in the race the problem seemed to have disappeared. We have to look at the details carefully and find out what happened. But the team did not panic, persevered, and got the result.”
When asked if it was a fundamental problem with the chassis, Gasly replied pragmatically: “I don’t think it’s that simple. At the moment, I just feel what I feel, and we see the difference in the data.”
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He rules out a pure setup problem, however: “Whether it is a component or something else in the setup – it is a very small difference, but it does not explain the extent on the racetrack. It can have many causes. That’s why we need more time and have to completely dismantle the car back at the factory. The potential is there, but since Miami my traction behavior has changed drastically. And we have to get it back to where it was before.”
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