The Latest Breaking News from Alpine

Sainz beat Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris at the Albert Park Circuit on Sunday after polesitter Max Verstappen retired early on with mechanical troubles.

A brief excursion at Turn 1 mattered little to Charles Leclerc. He was already on top of the Formula 1 pile in FP2, prior to his brief off towards the end of the session, having beaten Max Verstappen by almost four-tenths of a second.

The French team slipped down F1's pecking order in its transition to its new A524 chassis, and has failed to recapture its regular position in challenging for points from last season as the early-spec car has lacked outright pace.

Watch: Explained: Mercedes Grabs Resta from Ferrari in F1 Staff Swoop

When teams embark on such a change of direction, it is inevitable that they endure a learning phase in understanding how to extract pace out of their new platform.

The Frenchman has become the third partner in the semi-professional club that is based in the commune of Versailles, near Paris. It currently plays in the Championnat National, the third tier of the French football league system.

Alpine was already braced for a low-key start to the season after a late concept change, which meant it had initially made a sideways step over the winter while its rival teams were full steam ahead with bringing improvements to their cars. But team principal Famin admitted the nature of…

Under stable regulations, the new season is bearing an awful lot of similarities to how 2023 finished. Behind the sovereign Red Bull, Ferrari appears second-quickest, retaining its qualifying pace but adding a huge step in race performance to leap clear of the chasing pack.

In 2021, Simon-Chautemps called time on a 14-year stint in F1. But, through his JSC7 consultancy, he's still heavily involved in racing. He's lending his services to French team Sainteloc on its switch to single-seaters, as well as German race data provider Paceteq. In addition, he is involved in motorsport engineering recruitment and in…

The opening two rounds of the season in Bahrain and Jeddah confirmed what pre-season testing had suggested, as Alpine struggled at the back of the field with the slowest car.

Hulkenberg made a late pitstop work thanks to a defensive masterclass by Kevin Magnussen, who held up rivals to create a pit window for his team-mate. There was controversy over Magnussen, who already faced a 10-second penalty for clashing with Alex Albon, who then overtook RB's Yuki Tsunoda off the…