What happened was truly incredible. During the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the engine of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine suffered a catastrophic failure, forcing the French driver to retire. Analysis of the telemetry and inspection of the car upon its return to the garage revealed an extremely unusual incident.
Throughout the weekend, starting from the first free practice session on Friday, Pierre Gasly showed exceptional pace. Following his third-place finish in the extreme conditions at Interlagos, car number 10 confirmed his strong form.
On paper, the Nevada circuit was not expected to suit the A524. The long straights should have exposed the Renault power unit’s significant performance deficit. Yet, this didn’t seem to be the case in any of the weekend’s sessions.
The miracle came during qualifying. With a stunning lap, Pierre Gasly secured third place, ahead of Leclerc’s Ferrari. However, the race unfolded differently, as expected. From the early laps, Pierre Gasly was swallowed by the pack, and his race ended with an engine failure.
The cause of the problem becomes clear when analyzing the telemetry. On lap 14 (white line), Pierre Gasly was in a strong slipstream along the Strip’s straight, reaching a speed of 361 km/h with DRS open, compared to 336 km/h on the previous lap (blue line).
However, this caused the Renault engine to hit 12,859 rpm in eighth gear. It’s important to note that gear ratios are fixed for all tracks, and Alpine’s final gear is short. The engine couldn’t withstand the strain and ultimately failed, resulting in the damage seen when the car returned to the garage.
This isn’t the first time the car has shown significant reliability issues. In Baku, for instance, Esteban Ocon suffered power unit failures in all sessions. This persistent issue is one of the main reasons why the team will switch to Mercedes power units in 2026, aiming to return to the forefront of Formula 1 competition.
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