Alpine splits Zandvoort upgrade between Gasly, Colapinto

Alpine has brought forward its main upgrade package from Monza to this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix in a bid to stop Racing Bulls pulling away, but only Pierre Gasly will get the new parts at Zandvoort while Franco Colapinto remains on the previous specification.

The package had originally been scheduled for both cars at Monza, but strong simulator results convinced Alpine to accelerate the introduction by one race. The catch is that only one complete set was ready in time, so Gasly has been given the upgraded car and Colapinto will have to wait until Monza.

That leaves Colapinto in an awkward position for one of the most important comparison weekends of Alpine’s season. Speaking at the FIA press conference ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, as reported by Motorsport, he admitted he was unsure what result he even wanted. If he stays close to Gasly without the update, it reflects well on his own performance. If the gap opens significantly, it would be evidence that Alpine has finally found the step it needs.

Colapinto said the team’s data explains why Alpine was prepared to rush the package to Zandvoort. “In the sim it is very powerful, and if it is like that, it is very good for us,” he said. He added that “the bigger the difference in downforce we get between the two cars, the better it will be for us,” even if that means “it could be a bit of a painful weekend for me” if the upgrade works exactly as expected.

Alpine needs that outcome badly. Racing Bulls has moved ahead in both pace and points in the midfield fight, with Gasly saying at Zandvoort that Alpine is “lacking pace pretty much in all types of corners” and that its development plan has “taken slightly longer than some others.” The team has slipped from leading that group to trying to claw its way back toward regular top-10 finishes.

Gasly said the package was meant to arrive later and that Alpine had done well to get one set to Zandvoort at all. But the timing also makes the test harder to read, because the Dutch Grand Prix is a sprint weekend and Alpine will have only one practice session to understand the update before sprint qualifying.

Even so, the team has little choice but to push. Colapinto said the factory “has worked really hard” and that the decision to bring the upgrade early was already an encouraging sign. He said Alpine hopes it will show “that we can fight further up the grid during the latter part of the year,” which would give the team its clearest chance yet to restart its chase for fifth in the constructors’ championship.