6 key factors that have seen Alpine jump up the order in 2026

While the 2026 F1 season is still in its infancy, Alpine are amongst those to start the campaign off in promising form – marking quite a step forwards from their tough outing last year.

After ending 2025 with 22 points at the bottom of the Teams’ Championship, the Enstone-based outfit have already achieved a tally of 16 across the opening three rounds of the campaign, resulting in them leaping up to fifth in the standings – and putting them equal on points with sixth-placed Red Bull, while Haas are only two points ahead in fourth.

All of this bodes well for Alpine going forwards – but how have the squad pulled off this swing in their fortunes? F1.com takes a closer look at six of the key factors in the team’s progression up the order…

1. Early focus on 2026 development

With the impending arrival of sweeping new technical regulations in 2026, all of the F1 teams faced the dilemma during 2025 of deciding when to switch their focus to development of their new car.

For Alpine, the call was made to do this at an early stage in the season – meaning that the squad would essentially sacrifice 2025 in order to boost their chances for the following campaign, a move that received the backing of long-time driver Pierre Gasly.

“At the start of the year, when the team shared their approach and the fact that they would be keen to focus on 2026, I was the first one to say, ‘Just forget about this year. Even stop earlier and just start working on 2026’,” Gasly explained in the latter stages of 2025.

The Frenchman went on to add: “This couple of months of development for next season could be the difference between being at the top or being in the midfield again for another few years. I was more than happy, even as painful as it’s been this year, to accept a tough season as a team, to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance.”

While it was a decision that, as Gasly said, brought a “painful” 2025, the call seemed to lead to an increased sense of confidence at the team in terms of their prospects for 2026 – indeed, Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore was feeling sure enough to “promise” that “this season will be fantastic” for Alpine at the squad’s launch of their new challenger, the A526.

And alongside the early development move, there were also other factors at play that likely contributed to Briatore’s positivity about the campaign ahead…

2. Mercedes joining as power unit supplier

In September 2024, Alpine confirmed that their power unit department would cease operations at the end of 2025, with the team’s Viry-Chatillon factory – which had previously designed and built engines – instead becoming a ‘Hypertech Alpine’ centre.

This left a vacancy for an engine supplier – and, amid rumours of talks with Mercedes, the news followed two months later that Alpine would run power units from the Silver Arrows as of 2026 until at least the end of 2030.

The deal also meant that Alpine would use gearboxes from Mercedes for 2026, though sources said that the team intended to build their own from 2027.

It was a move that former Team Principal Oliver Oakes admitted at the time was a “difficult decision”, but that it was made to “get the best engine in the back of the car and help the team keep climbing back up the grid”.

With Mercedes previously performing well when the turbo-hybrid era began back in 2014, the German manufacturer appeared confident in their abilities to adapt to the new power unit regulations for 2026, which would see the balance shift to around a 50-50 power split between petrol and electric.

Alpine certainly seemed pleased with the early signs of promise from their new engines during 2026 pre-season testing in Bahrain, with Managing Director Steve Nielsen commenting: “I think we’re happy with our PU supplier. That’s one area where we’ve definitely made big gains.”

3. More stability throughout the team

The switch to Mercedes power units marked just one of several big developments to occur in the Alpine camp during the last few years, the squad having experienced numerous personnel changes across recent seasons.

On the driver front, Esteban Ocon left one race earlier than originally planned at the end of 2024, leading to Jack Doohan stepping in prior to joining full-time in 2025. The Australian’s tenure did not last long, however, as he was replaced by Franco Colapinto after the opening six rounds.

Meanwhile, Oliver Oakes resigned from the position of Team Principal with immediate effect in May 2025 – less than one year after joining following the exit of Bruno Famin – while long-time Renault CEO Luca de Meo left suddenly in June.

However, with Briatore rejoining the squad in June 2024 – and Steve Nielsen also coming onboard as Managing Director last September – Alpine appear to have found more stable ground, something they have also achieved through maintaining the same driver line-up of Gasly and Colapinto for 2026.

“Alpine in the last few years has had no stability,” Briatore conceded towards the end of 2025. “Now we need to keep stability. The team is growing, a lot of new engineers are arriving.

“We have hired a very good group of engineers and now little by little they are starting to arrive because, with gardening leave, it’s typically six months. We are setting the team for next season.”

4. Strong performances from both drivers

With all of those foundations in place, Alpine indeed appeared well set up for 2026 – but another factor at play in terms of whether that promise would follow through on the track would arguably rest on the ability of the drivers to deliver.

Both Gasly and Colapinto achieved good mileage during pre-season testing – something that Colapinto admitted had “really helped” him, with it marking the first time that he had started a campaign as a full-time driver.

The more experienced Gasly scored a hard-fought point at Round 1 in Australia, leading Nielsen to praise the Frenchman’s “resilience and skill in a challenging scenario”.

While it was a less straightforward race for Colapinto – who served a stop/go penalty for a start procedure infringement, an “operational error” that Nielsen apologised to the Argentine driver for – better was to come one week later in China, where both Gasly and Colapinto added to Alpine’s points tally in sixth and 10th respectively.

“To come away with nine points and both Pierre and Franco scoring is a great result for the team,” Briatore reflected. “Both drivers did a super job and got a nice reward for the team to take back to Enstone after a tough double header to start the season.”

Gasly then scored another six points at Round 3 in Japan after defending hard against the chasing Red Bull of Max Verstappen throughout much of the second half of the race, leading the 30-year-old to comment afterwards: “It’s been a positive weekend for the team and we are not too far off some of the quicker teams ahead.”

5. Performing consistently at different tracks

As touched on above, Alpine have so far experienced good consistency across the opening three rounds, as well as seeming to enjoy decent pace throughout the whole weekend – which included the campaign’s first Sprint round in China.

“I think we’ve showed pace the whole weekend,” Gasly said in Shanghai. “Seventh in Sprint Quali, seventh in [Qualifying]. In the race we were pretty competitive – and there’ve been a few issues.”

With that performance level continuing on to Suzuka, Briatore was left encouraged by the squad’s ability to adapt to another track, an outcome that also gave him a positive impression of Alpine’s overall position in the pecking order.

“It was another positive weekend for the team, with another strong points finish to add in the early part of the season,” Briatore summarised after Round 3.

“Also, to repeat it at a different track configuration like Suzuka, confirms the gains we made in Shanghai and shows we’re in the mix with Red Bull as the fourth quickest car currently.”

This all appears to bode well for the Enstone-based outfit going forwards, given the different challenges posed by the variety of circuits still to come on the 2026 calendar.

6. Still striving for more

Alpine are understandably pleased with their start to the season; going from last place at the end of 2025 to a current position of fifth is, after all, a very good return on the opening rounds.

However, there certainly does not appear to be any complacency amongst those in the team going forward. Colapinto, for instance, said that the squad “need to find more performance” off the back of scoring his first point of the season in Shanghai.

Likewise, Gasly – following his close scrap with Verstappen at Suzuka – urged the team to “stay motivated and keep working hard to catch those ahead”, a sentiment echoed by Briatore ahead of the five-week gap prior to Round 4 in Miami.

“With the short break, we absolutely won’t stand still and will be working hard at Enstone to add more performance to the car and continue to give equal opportunity to both drivers to perform and score points,” the Italian said.

While other teams will also be focused on utilising the time away to their advantage – arguably heightening the likelihood of others posing an even closer challenge to Alpine in the upcoming races – the Enstone-based outfit will surely be bolstered by their strong start to the campaign.

Can they fend off the likes of Haas and Racing Bulls – and even Red Bull – to head the battle of the midfield further into 2026? Time will tell…