Alpine will attempt to make a comeback in the upcoming Formula 1 season after finishing bottom of the 2025 Constructors’ Championship.
With a largely unchanged team and a new engine partner, what can the French company do? Before Barcelona’s season kicks off on Friday, let’s take a deeper look at its prospects.
advertise
What’s new at Alpine?
Alpine’s main change for 2026 is the team’s switch to customer Mercedes power units. Renault’s F1 team will no longer use its own engines for the first time in the brand’s history.
This is not a first for Enstone, as it raced with Mercedes-Benz under the Lotus name in the 2015 season. Benetton only started using Renault powertrains in 1995.
The decision was taken by then-Renault CEO Luca de Meo, who later left the company and became deeply unpopular within the Viry-Chatillon engine division.
advertise
The team has also lost some partners, notably Microsoft, which has switched its allegiance to Mercedes.
Meanwhile, reserve driver Jack Doohan left the team to pursue a potential career path in Super Formula, leaving Paul Aron and Kush Maini as test and reserve drivers – but only the Estonians are eligible for a superlicence.
What is the biggest challenge facing Alpine?
Proven that it’s capable of building a race-winning chassis – and when we write “race-winning,” we specifically mean “on merit.” Esteban Ocon’s victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix wasn’t entirely deserved, don’t get us wrong, but it’s not entirely a true reflection of the car’s actual speed.
advertise
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A521
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A521
On top of this, the Enstone-based team has not won since Kimi Raikkonen’s Australian Grand Prix in 2013, with their failures often blamed on their engines.
The team finished last in the 2025 Constructors’ Championship, so it still has a lot to prove.
What is Alpine’s strongest asset?
By 2026, Alpine’s strongest asset may just be its Mercedes power unit.
Mercedes was considered to have an advantage over all other engine manufacturers, thanks in part to a shrewd interpretation of new rules regarding compression ratios in internal combustion engines.
advertise
Also read:
FIA keen to ‘resolve’ engine bug controversy before F1 2026 starts
If this translates into a real performance gap, Alpine will have all the leverage to succeed.
What are Alpine’s goals in F1 2026?
Alpine publicly halted development of the A525 early last year (around May) in order to focus on the new regulations. That’s why it only scored 22 points, while its closest rival, Sauber, scored 70 points.
advertise
Leading rider Pierre Gasly has been performing at a high level and taking these difficulties to heart, but he will now become restless as he fails to make meaningful progress.
By 2026, Alpine will have virtually nowhere to hide.
To read more Motorsport.com articles, please visit our website.
