BWT Alpine Formula One Team – Pierre Gasly seals a strong sixth in China as Franco Colapinto claims his first point for Alpine 2026

BWT Alpine Formula One Team left Shanghai with a rare feeling since the start of the season: that of a Sunday executed to perfection.

Over the 56 laps of the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix, contested at the Shanghai International Circuit, Pierre Gasly turned a strong qualifying performance into a sixth-place finish, while Franco Colapinto, despite a mid-race incident, secured the final point on offer by crossing the line in tenth position.

In a championship where Mercedes is already setting the pace with a one-two finish from Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, Alpine above all confirmed that it now has a far more robust race package. With nine points scored on Sunday, the French team moves to ten points after two rounds and remains seventh in the Constructors’ Championship, just behind Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing.

Under dry skies, in cooler-than-expected conditions with 18°C in the air and track temperatures holding around 25°C, the race quickly took on major strategic significance as soon as the Safety Car was deployed.

BWT Alpine Formula One Team: Sunday – Race

Pierre Gasly turns an imperfect stop into a strong result, Franco Colapinto bounces back despite contact

At the start, Pierre Gasly immediately held on to seventh place without offering the slightest opening into Turn 1. The Frenchman quickly settled into a clean rhythm behind the Ferrari-Haas group, with an Alpine A526 that looked particularly stable through the opening sector’s sequence of corners.

Franco Colapinto, meanwhile, made an excellent launch. The Argentine gained two positions in the opening metres and immediately moved into the top 10 thanks to very efficient traction out of Turn 2.

The opening laps showed an Alpine that was more consistent than in Melbourne. Pierre Gasly stayed close to the DRS train while managing his medium tyres, while Franco Colapinto swept past Liam Lawson after a perfectly judged move in the long braking zone for Turn 14.

The turning point of the Grand Prix came on lap 10.

Lance Stroll’s retirement triggered the Safety Car at the exact moment Pierre Gasly had just made his stop. On paper, the timing looked frustrating: the Frenchman switched to the hard tyres just before a stop under neutralisation became possible.

But the exceptional quality of the following stint completely erased that disadvantage.

For 46 laps, Pierre Gasly kept tyre degradation extremely low, stabilised his pace around a very consistent stint, and effectively protected sixth place.

BWT Alpine Formula One Team

It was in that long-run management that the Alpine A526 probably delivered its most encouraging message of the weekend.

Enstone’s recent history has often rested on that ability inherited from the great Renault years: turning an imperfect pecking order into a major result through execution.

In Shanghai, Pierre Gasly reproduced that logic perfectly.

His best lap of 1:35.502 on lap 52 confirmed that the car still had pace left at the end of the race, even as several rivals were struggling more on their hard tyres.

Ahead of him, Oliver Bearman remained out of reach, but behind, Liam Lawson never found a genuine opening.

For Franco Colapinto, Sunday’s path was more turbulent.

On lap 33, after his stop, the Argentine immediately found himself locked in a tense duel with Esteban Ocon. The former Alpine driver’s move down the inside led to light contact at Turn 2.

The front wing was disturbed, a few seconds were lost, but Franco Colapinto immediately relaunched his race.

His closing stint was clean and disciplined, allowing him to secure tenth place behind Carlos Sainz.

This first Grand Prix point in BWT Alpine Formula One Team colours rewarded a drive that was more mature than aggressive.

An Alpine finally building results over the long run

The most important signal from Shanghai is not only numerical. It is structural.

Pierre Gasly showed that the Alpine A526 could sustain a long stint without collapsing. Franco Colapinto confirmed that he could turn a disrupted race into a concrete result.

The team still lacks outright pace compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, but its efficiency in race management is becoming far more credible.

In the Constructors’ Championship, BWT Alpine Formula One Team remains seventh on ten points, behind Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing, but ahead of Audi, Williams, Cadillac and Aston Martin.

This kind of Sunday always carries more weight than a simple top-10 finish: it establishes a genuine technical base for the rest of the season.

What they said

Pierre Gasly – P6

“It’s an excellent result for the team and a strong weekend overall with both cars in the points. I’m obviously pleased, even if the competitor in me is still a little frustrated not to have taken fifth place.

I think the top five was within our reach. I felt really comfortable in the car today and the pace was there. We kept the front group in our sights during the first stint. With these new cars, the question was not whether there would be a Safety Car, but when it would come out. It eventually did and bunched the whole field back together.

For an unknown reason, I had no energy on the restart and Ollie [Bearman] took advantage of it. With the battles against Max [Verstappen] and others, I lost ground to Ollie and had a big gap to close. I pushed as if every lap was a qualifying lap. It was really enjoyable, and I managed to get back to him, but not close enough to launch an attack.

It’s a good result, but there are still plenty of details to fine-tune. I hope we can carry the pace we showed this weekend into the next races.”

Franco Colapinto – P10

“What a race and what a great day for the team with both cars in the points! I’m delighted to open my account with Alpine, but I’m just as frustrated because I wanted more.

Some things didn’t go our way today and even though coming back into the points is already a success, I know there was even more on the table. Still, it’s a very encouraging sign for what comes next. We made a fantastic start to gain a lot of positions.

We were comfortably sitting in fifth and sixth before the Safety Car. All the drivers on hard tyres stayed out, including me.

After that, we extended our stint before I was unfortunately hit by Esteban [Ocon] coming out of the pits. He came to apologise afterwards and everything was fine. We lost a bit of downforce because the floor was damaged and we didn’t quite have the pace or enough laps to catch Carlos [Sainz].

More points were literally within reach! Well done to Pierre as well. We worked well as a team today and there were some great battles on track.”

Flavio Briatore:

“Scoring nine points with Pierre and Franco is a solid result. Both drivers did an excellent job to give the whole Enstone team a fine reward after this difficult run of two races to open the campaign.

It’s our first double top-10 finish of the year and it shows that we can be competitive and regularly fight for points. We also know this season will be a development race, so the work does not stop here.

We will keep pushing before Japan and the upcoming events to continue moving in the right direction.

Congratulations as well to Kimi [Antonelli] on his first Formula 1 victory, the first win for an Italian driver and a fellow countryman since Fisi did it with us in 2006.”

Full table – 2026 Chinese Grand Prix result

Drivers’ standings after Shanghai

Constructors’ standings after Shanghai

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Source: BWT Alpine Formula One Team