BWT Alpine Formula One Team – Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto face difficult Friday practice in Melbourne

BWT Alpine Formula One Team ended this opening Friday of the Australian Grand Prix with a day that proved more complicated than expected at Albert Park Circuit. On a track that immediately punishes even the slightest balance issues, the Alpine A526 never truly found consistency, neither on short runs nor in the longer sequences designed to prepare for the rest of the weekend.

The positions remained modest: Pierre Gasly finished 18th in the opening session before moving up to 16th in the afternoon, while Franco Colapinto set the 16th-fastest time before slipping back to 18th in Free Practice 2. More than the classification itself, the gaps observed — more than two seconds off the benchmark time of the day — confirmed that there is still a great deal of work to do to understand the package.

Friday – Free Practice 1 & Free Practice 2

An Alpine A526 still inconsistent through aerodynamic balance changes

The morning was largely devoted to the first readings on the five Straight Mode zones (the low-drag aerodynamic mode) introduced this season. These new aerodynamic phases, particularly sensitive at Albert Park between Turns 2 and 3 and then in the fast sections around Turns 9 and 10, quickly highlighted a balance that remains unstable.

Pierre Gasly completed 27 laps in the first session and posted a best time of 1’24’’271. Franco Colapinto completed 26 laps and finished slightly ahead on 1’23’’325.

In the fast corners, the front end of the Alpine A526 regularly lacked precision, with visible understeer as the car entered the low-drag phases. The morning runs also confirmed that the car remains sensitive to rear load changes, making it difficult to read from one lap to the next.

The afternoon brought a logical improvement in lap time on a faster track, but without changing the overall trend.

Pierre Gasly lowered his time to 1’22’’167, but only after 16 laps. His programme was interrupted before the planned end, with Alpine choosing to park the car in order to check an item flagged in the data.

Franco Colapinto continued with 27 additional laps, several comparisons on C4 and then C5, and longer runs that confirmed the beginning of graining on the right-rear tyre at the end of the stint.

BWT Alpine Formula One Team

Franco Colapinto’s power loss adds a mechanical concern to an already difficult day.

The most significant incident of Friday came in the closing minutes of FP2.

Exiting the final corner, Franco Colapinto suddenly lost power on the main straight. The Alpine A526 remained at reduced speed before eventually making it back to the pits.

Behind him, Lewis Hamilton had to alter his line at high speed to avoid the car.

Even without a complete stop on track, the sequence now forces the engineers to analyse the exact cause of this power loss, especially as the end-of-session programme was meant to strengthen the data gathered on energy management over longer runs.

Overall, Pierre Gasly completed 43 laps and Franco Colapinto 53, for a total of 96 laps across the day.

The amount of running provides a sufficient base for overnight work, but several points have already become clear: the team will need to stabilise the car’s behaviour in the fast corners, reduce balance variations during aerodynamic activations, and restore full running on both cars from Saturday morning onward.

Inside the garage, the priority will also be to make sure no energy-system component on Franco Colapinto’s car has been compromised before the third free practice session.

What they said

Pierre Gasly:

“This first Friday of the season has been very tricky. We knew some aspects would be challenging as there is so much to learn and understand with these new cars, but the day was probably more complicated than expected.

We had to stop early as a precaution in Free Practice 2, which limited our programme in that session. It is better to identify these issues now and we have a lot of work to do to solve them before we return to the track tomorrow. For now, we need to find solutions to make the car more consistent.

The day was not without its issues, but I am sure we will be in a much better position once we have fixed a few points and optimised our track time.”

Franco Colapinto:

“Our start to the weekend in Melbourne has not been the easiest, but I am sure we learned enough today to improve our performance tomorrow.

These are only the practice sessions and we have already identified several key points to correct and many areas where we can improve, and I am confident we can do that by tomorrow. These challenges were predictable, especially on a circuit as unique as Albert Park with a completely new car and new systems to understand.

We completed a good number of laps, which gives us plenty to analyse, and I hope we can find improvements overnight. On my side, I had a small issue with dry ice getting into my eye at the end of Free Practice 2, but fortunately it was nothing serious and there is no reason to worry.”

Conclusion

The data gathered on Friday at least provides a clear direction for the night ahead: BWT Alpine Formula One Team must find a more predictable car in the fast sequences, especially in the sectors where downforce drops significantly, while also securing the energy system before the third free practice session.

At Melbourne, where the track evolves quickly from one day to the next, an improvement remains possible if the team can fully exploit the setup window identified late in the afternoon.

Performance table – BWT Alpine Formula One Team – Friday

Full Free Practice 2 classification in Melbourne

The second Friday session confirmed an already tightly packed order through the midfield, with Oscar Piastri leading the way for McLaren ahead of the Mercedes cars of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

For BWT Alpine Formula One Team, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto finished 16th and 18th respectively after a session marked by limited running for Pierre Gasly and a late power loss for Franco Colapinto.

Source: BWT Alpine Formula One Team