Alpine unveil A526 for Colapinto and Gasly | OneFootball

In Barcelona, aboard a cruise ship, the Enstone team unveiled the car they had worked on for an entire year in hopes of improving their results.

A season flushed down the drain, last place among the Constructors for the first time since Renault entered the World Championship, the closure of the Viry power unit program… Alpine and Flavio Briatore, the team boss, have bet everything on 2026. There is no margin left for Enstone after having finished 2025 completely out of any contention. The revolutionary change that F1 and the FIA have planned for the 77th Formula 1 season is the cornerstone on which the French team hopes to kick off from the bottom and start to rise. The A526, presented this Friday on a cruise ship off the coast of Barcelona, carries all their hopes and there is no room for error. Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly, the drivers, know it.

The meager results of 2025 did not prevent a lavish presentation. Briatore, Gasly, and Colapinto were the main actors, and it was the drivers who unveiled the A526, which, unlike most, will feature a pull-rod suspension. The livery is very similar to its predecessor, the A525, with blue and pink as the predominant colors.

In 2025, Briatore ruled out any possibility of updating the current season’s chassis and decided that every Alpine resource would be devoted to the 2026 concept, with David Sanchez, the French engineer with a Ferrari background and now head of Enstone’s technical department, leading the way. Inside the team, hope rests on two key factors: that the technical chief has hit the mark, and on the Mercedes power unit. The Italian chose to stop using their own engines (for the first time in history, a Renault team in F1 will not be powered by the Diamond’s engine) and relied on German might.

Before boarding the ship and presenting the car to the world, Gasly took the A526 for a spin at Silverstone during a filming day (maximum 200 kilometers and on exhibition tires). Starting Monday, Barcelona will be open for five days of private testing (each team may participate in three). Very close to the presentation venue, Alpine will begin to measure itself against the rivals it watched from so far behind in 2025, a scenario that cannot be repeated after such a big gamble.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.