Alpine A526 ‘pretty good’ but Steve Nielsen flags key weakness

Alpine’s A526 is looking “pretty good” as an all-round machine, says Steve Nielsen, but there’s a fundamental weakness that needs addressing.

From a distant last place in F1 2025, Alpine has shown up as one of the top-performing cars at the start of the new regulation cycle, and it appears the switch-off to concentrate on the new regulations has been the right choice.

Steve Nielsen highlights Alpine A526 high-speed understeer issue

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust.

Alpine’s decision to switch off from any development of its F1 2025 car in order to focus on the low-hanging fruit of the new regulation cycle appears to have yielded fruit over the winter, with the A526 hitting the ground running in the upper midfield.

Indeed, Pierre Gasly has been the only driver, aside from the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers, to have scored in each of the three Grands Prix so far, and the points accrued by the Enstone-based squad have seen it vault to fifth in the championship.

This could even have been fourth, had it not been for an unfortunate racing incident between Franco Colapinto and Haas’ Esteban Ocon that netted the French driver a time penalty and left the Argentine frustrated as he recovered to 10th.

Alpine has had to concentrate on figuring out its new Mercedes power unit, having abandoned being a manufacturer in its own right for the new regulation cycle.

With Mercedes High-Performance Powertrains producing the unit to beat at the start of the new ruleset, Alpine has undoubtedly benefited from this, but the A526 has proven to be a solid baseline from which David Sanchez and his technical team can develop.

Upgrades introduced in Japan were the first step in development aimed at the next area of concentration to unlock further performance on the aero side, as managing director Steve Nielsen explained.

We’ve got some problems with high-speed understeer, which we need to fix,” Nielsen said in Japan.

“High-speed changes in direction, that’s probably the biggest single weakness on the car we’ve got this year.

“So we knew coming here, Sector One would be tricky, and it is. It manifests itself as understeer. So we have high-speed understeer. We saw some of that in Bahrain.

“I think that’s the biggest overriding factor, honestly. Other than that, everything’s pretty good, as I say, long runs, high fuel, looks good, looks competitive compared with the people that we’re up against.”

Alpine’s main rivals at this point of the season appear to be fellow customer outfits such as Haas and Racing Bulls, with Williams and Aston Martin having slipped back in the pack with the rule changes.

More on F1’s unofficial ‘Spring break’

Revealed: Four teams which need this F1 2026 break

Ferrari set for extra track time as busy April schedule emerges

Even Red Bull appears within reach, with Gasly having had the measure of Max Verstappen at Suzuka, coming home ahead of the Dutch driver after a race-long defence against the four-time F1 World Champion.

“I’m just happy because the car seems to work on all types of tracks, really,” Gasly said after Japan.

“So I think that’s definitely a good boost of confidence. I haven’t been at the factory yet, but hopefully they’ll enjoy seeing us fighting for this type of position, quite different from last year, and take the boost.”

With Gasly seemingly having a car capable of strong upper midfield results, slotting into the mix just behind the leading trio of Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren, the French driver said he’s adjusting his mindset to match, having spent last year at the back of the field.

“Obviously, I can sense more potential, and I think, obviously, if you ask me, coming into a season, I always want what’s best,” he said.

“I think what’s difficult in Formula 1 is to be satisfied, obviously, with being in the midfield or being on top of the midfield, because you always see someone is getting more and you like to join the fight.

“So I think, ultimately, I always carry that with me. It doesn’t mean that I’m not appreciating all the work that has been done. I think we are in a situation where we have two options, looking at how close the competition is behind, and making sure that we remain on top of the midfield, which in itself is not easy, because we saw that Haas is a fierce competitor. VCARB has been strong at times.

“But I’m more interested in the fight ahead. That’s why for me, as a team, I just want us to make sure we focus on the right target, which is to try to jump on the forward train and try to slowly close the gap to these guys to be able to show our nose on some occasion this year.

“No one will ever come and say, ‘Oh yeah, this weekend we got the fastest race car’ or ‘This weekend, we got a clear Q3 car’.

“You have so many different parameters, but I think, generally, from what I felt, I’m quite confident that I’m gonna have a car that allows me to race in the top 10.

“There might be one track, one weekend, certain conditions, where these cars will probably be a bit better.

“I might be proven wrong but, at the moment, I do have this confidence that there’s still quite a lot of things to learn, and I’m confident that once we get on top of all of that, we have got a decent race car.”

The main question mark for Alpine at this point is whether or not it can keep pace with development, and whether the A526 is a good, if unspectacular, car being flattered by a superior power unit, as was the case with Williams at the start of the hybrid era.

But, unlike last year, there will be no backing off of development of the current machine, with the A526 getting the team’s full attention for further development.

“With the short break, we absolutely won’t stand still,” executive advisor Flavio Briatore said after Japan. “We will be working hard at Enstone to add more performance to the car and continue to give equal opportunity to both drivers to perform and score points.”

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read Next: Alpine’s 2026 reset delivers as Pierre Gasly leads stunning rise past Red Bull