Alpine warns Austria slump must not become a trend

Alpine left the Austrian Grand Prix with its first genuinely poor weekend of the Formula 1 season exposed on two fronts, after both cars lost boost off the line and neither Pierre Gasly nor Franco Colapinto had the pace to recover, finishing 13th and 15th respectively.

The team had considered starts one of its strengths this year, which made the launch problem stand out immediately. Steve Nielsen, Alpine sporting director, said the team “lacked the pace to really compete this weekend” and was “not in a position to fight for points at the chequered flag,” while confirming that “both drivers made slow getaways with a lack of boost, which we need to look into.”

That poor start only made a broader race weakness harder to hide. Gasly described Austria as “probably the toughest of the season,” saying Alpine struggled for grip, balance and tyre life throughout the afternoon. He said he had to stop three times because the tyres “were wearing very quickly,” and added that “ultimately, even in free air, we didn’t have the pace.”

Gasly’s problems began almost immediately. After starting 11th, he said a power issue on the straights meant he did not have full power until Turn 4 and lost places before settling into a race defined by heavy degradation. He had expected Alpine to be competitive in the heat, especially after its stronger Sunday form in Barcelona, but said “that wasn’t the case” at the Red Bull Ring.

Colapinto endured a similarly compromised race from even further back. Starting 16th, he said the car “stayed still at the start” because of a loss of power and dropped to last by the first corner. The Argentine eventually finished 15th, one lap behind winner George Russell, but said the bigger issue was that Alpine never gave him the tools to fight back.

“It wasn’t the easiest weekend and in general we couldn’t really find the pace or the grip,” Colapinto said. He described a car that was “sliding a lot,” “didn’t react,” and quickly overheated its rear tyres, with strong pace on fresh rubber fading sharply over a stint as the balance worsened.

Nielsen said Alpine tried to keep itself within range of the Racing Bulls, including switching Gasly to a three-stop strategy under the VSC, but the call “didn’t do too much to change the final outcome,” underlining that the problem ran deeper than tactics. Austria, he said, showed a clear lack of speed rather than a missed opportunity.

That leaves Silverstone as an important response point for a team now trying to separate a one-off collapse from a more worrying pattern. Nielsen said Alpine must make sure Austria is “a blip and not a trend,” while Gasly said it was already “clear where we need to improve” before the Sprint weekend and Colapinto insisted the team has to understand what went wrong to get back to fighting higher up.