Pierre Gasly described Alpine’s 2026 challenger as the best Formula 1 car he’s had in his career, after beating Max Verstappen to seventh position in the Japanese Grand Prix.
After Alpine sacrificed its 2025 campaign to focus on F1’s new technical regulations, Gasly has again spearheaded its effort – and this time higher up the grid.
The 30-year-old qualified seventh in the last three sessions (sprint included), each time faster than both Red Bulls; in the Japanese Grand Prix, Gasly comfortably pulled away from the remainder of the pack before the safety car bunched up the field, erasing his three-second gap to Verstappen.
The Alpine driver then withstood the four-time world champion’s pressure during the remaining 26 laps, successfully fighting back when he was passed on lap 48, and took the chequered flag 0.337s ahead.
“It was a long race, I must say, with a lot of pressure,” Gasly told Canal+. “Early in the race, I was quite comfortable with the mediums. But there have been many safety cars this year, so I knew it was bound to happen at some point.
“The second part of the race was a bit different. He put huge pressure on me throughout the race, so I really had to focus to try and be as fast as possible – there was no management with those tyres – and make no mistake, because he was very, very close.
“He managed to stay quite close, so they did a bit better than us on hard tyres. But in the end, we managed to keep him behind and get that seventh place.”
Alpine had the eighth-fastest car in Australian GP qualifying, then the fourth-quickest at Shanghai and Suzuka, prompting praise from Gasly.
“I think, for now, this is the best car I’ve had in my career, perhaps alongside the 2021 AlphaTauri,” he pondered, referring to the AT02 he drove to the top six in 16 qualifying sessions out of 22 – but leaving out the Red Bull RB15 he competed in 12 grands prix with in 2019.
Gasly is now among just six drivers who have scored points at all three grands prix so far this season, helping him to eighth in the championship with 15 points to his name – again ahead of Verstappen – while Alpine narrowly leads Red Bull in fifth in the constructors’ standings.
Optimistic as ever, the Frenchman is aiming at the top teams, with Alpine helped by the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions – the Enstone-based outfit currently enjoys more wind tunnel and CFD time than any other, courtesy of its finish at the bottom of the 2025 standings.
“I think we’ve got a good baseline,” Gasly continued. “I’m quite happy to see that the car has seemed to work well over the first few weekends, we’ve managed to have performance all around. We know our limitations and what we need to work on. But we have one month ahead of us, we’re working on stuff for Miami, so overall it bodes well.
“I’m happy with this weekend, the team did a good job, we made decent progress throughout the weekend. We managed to open up a pleasant gap to [Liam] Lawson, who I believe finished 18 seconds behind us, and we’re seven seconds away from the Ferrari [of Lewis Hamilton] in front. So if we keep moving forward, I hope we can catch the leading pack.”
