Alpine left the Belgian Grand Prix with a single point after Franco Colapinto finished 10th at Spa-Francorchamps, but both the Argentine and team mate Pierre Gasly delivered blunt assessments of a car they say is falling behind the midfield competition. Alpine and Racing Bulls are now tied on 61 points in the constructors’ standings.
Colapinto’s result prevented Alpine from losing further ground, and the 10th-place finish was aided by a strong start and consistent race pace. He crossed the line 0.9 seconds ahead of Gasly and just 1.4 seconds clear of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, breaking the rival team’s streak of scoring with both cars. Colapinto finished behind Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad but managed to keep Lawson at bay.
“Happy with the point, of course it’s been very positive with us. We are struggling a little bit with the car, and to score a point in these conditions and be in front of an Audi and a Racing Bulls car, it is more than what we thought we can do, so of course happy with that,” Colapinto said after the race. He was less optimistic about the bigger picture: “We need to improve the car a lot, we are too slow at the moment. Even though we maximised the weekend with a good Quali and a good race, the car needs to be quicker and we are just losing quite a lot of lap time in some corners compared to the Audis and the Racing Bulls.”
Gasly’s weekend was far more difficult. The Frenchman, who scored in the first seven Grands Prix this season and earned a podium in Monaco, has managed just one point from the last three rounds. He crashed during Friday practice at Spa and then nearly failed to start the race after losing power on the formation lap.
“It started badly, I had no power at the start so I think I lost two positions. Managed to make it back, unfortunately after we had a poor stop which put us back again, trying to fight back,” Gasly said. “Quite a frustrating race, stuck behind Liam Lawson for quite a long time, battling, passing, him passing me back which was quite tricky. Yeah, unfortunately at the end we lost out and just finished outside the points which was a bit disappointing.”
Gasly pointed to the growing deficit to their midfield rivals as the core concern. “Especially looking at the gaps with the cars ahead, Audi, Bortoleto, Lindblad, we are miles off, so we need to work,” he said. Asked what he could take from the weekend overall, Gasly was blunt: “It is not good enough.”
Alpine started the 2026 season as the strongest midfield team but have seen their advantage erode as rivals introduced upgrades. The team has not publicly disclosed when its next significant development package will arrive. Colapinto offered a sliver of hope, suggesting the slower-speed corners at the Hungaroring could better suit Alpine’s current package. The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend begins Friday, giving Gasly little time to dwell but a quick opportunity to test that theory.