Coming off perhaps the most difficult season of his career, Pierre Gasly is putting all his focus on Alpine’s 2026 revival and the sweeping regulatory changes that could reshape the team’s fortunes.
A pillar of the team
The 2025 season was extremely challenging for Alpine, which found itself with the worst car on the grid and finished last in the Constructors’ Championship with just 22 points—48 fewer than Sauber in second-to-last place. The team’s entire points haul was scored by Pierre Gasly, who, despite being hampered by the car’s technical limitations, proved himself as a driver of exceptional talent.
It’s no surprise that Flavio Briatore and Alpine secured Pierre Gasly with a contract through the end of the 2028 season, making him the team’s reference point during a period of profound transformation. In 2026, leveraging the major changes to the technical regulations, Alpine will transition from being Renault’s factory team to a Mercedes customer, acquiring the Brixworth power units.
Looking toward revival
On the eve of a season that could dramatically shift the balance of the grid, Pierre Gasly spoke to Rolling Stone about his ambitions. Born in 1996 and with a single F1 victory at the wild 2020 Italian Grand Prix, the Frenchman is eager to make up for lost time and reassert himself at the front of the championship. Surprisingly, Gasly believes he can achieve this feat with Alpine.
“I want to win this year,” Gasly said. “That’s the only thing I want. I truly believe in the team and the staff we have at the factory. I really think we have the ingredients to succeed in Formula 1. I really hope that from this year onward we can start fighting for podiums and that I can claim my second victory. We know we haven’t been at the level we want, but we also know that something big is coming,” continued the #10 French driver. “We went through a period of serious crisis, but we hope to recover and reach the highest possible position in 2026. I really believe in us as a team, and I want to be the one to bring us back to the top.”
Pierre Gasly’s unwavering faith in the Alpine project serves as a rallying cry for a team that hit rock bottom in 2025. By abandoning the Renault engine in favor of the proven Mercedes power unit, Alpine is making a pragmatic gamble to close the performance gap immediately. Pierre Gasly’s role as the team’s (locked-in) leader until 2028 suggests that both the driver and management see the 2026 reset as a clean slate to erase the failures of the past and transform Enstone back into a winning force.
Leave a Reply