Alpine head the midfield after five rounds of the 2026 championship, comfortably ahead of Haas and Racing Bulls. With the majority of teams now having introduced their first big upgrade, Alpine remain the ones to catch, with Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly both delivering points in Canada for the French outfit.
It was not all plain sailing though, with Gasly struggling at times in Miami and again in Montreal – in contrast to how he fared in the opening three flyaway races.
Colapinto meanwhile is improving week by week, and managed to finish as the top midfield car in Canada despite carrying damage to his front wing.
So, the big question is, can Alpine – who propped up the Team’s standings last year – keep their noses in front of what seems to be an incredibly close midfield fight?
Colapinto shines across Montreal weekend
Colapinto was out-qualified by Gasly at the first three race weekends, but finally got the better of the Frenchman in Miami. That sparked a bit of a resurgence for the Argentine racer, who also beat his team mate in the Grand Prix.
Canada could not have started worse for Colapinto, though, as he limped back to the pits at the end of his first practice out-lap and missed the entire session with a PU problem. Despite that, he managed to qualify 13th for the Sprint and came home ninth to just miss out on points.
He did even better in Qualifying, making the top 10, and then drove a very solid race to finish a career-best P6.
And that was despite sliding his way out of the pits, running across the grass and clipping the wall, damaging his front wing to boot. He was not only able to continue, but pulled away from the challengers behind to cruise to his P6 finish.
“From where we started the weekend to having a double points finish for the team, is a great result and a fantastic reward for everyone at the team who has been working so hard,” he said post-race.
“We know we benefitted from others’ misfortune, and it’s never a nice feeling to benefit from their issues, but we maximised everything we could and brought the car home.
“As we know, there’s still more we need to do to be more competitive, bring more performance to the car and get closer to those ahead of us on merit.”
Gasly recovers well – but knows there is work to do
Gasly is not used to being out-performed by a team mate of late. He out-qualified Colapinto 12 times in their 17 race weekends together last season, scoring 16 points to the Argentinian’s zero once they teamed up in 2025.
But in Miami, Colapinto was the faster of the two, and that held across the Canadian weekend. He got the better of Gasly in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, but the Frenchman did well to recover into the points on Sunday from a P14 grid slot.
Like his team mate, he benefitted from the misfortunes of others – but he still had to be in the right place at the right time, and keep out of trouble.
“Overall, it’s a really good team result and strong points for the championship,” said Gasly on Sunday.
“In general, though, I have struggled with the car again and, as a team, we need to see why that is and aim to fix a few areas.
“There is a lot of work ahead of us to get the car into a good place again and that is our target between now and Monaco.
“Hopefully we can fix some of these limitations and go there with more confidence and more performance.”
The state of play in the midfield
Monaco is up next, starting the European swing. Six races in eight weekends will keep everyone busy, with teams expected to bring more upgrades as the weeks go on.
So far, Alpine’s have worked, even if Gasly has not been as comfortable in the car as Colapinto. They need to watch out for Racing Bulls though, who had Liam Lawson in the points and were unlucky that Arvid Lindblad couldn’t start the race from his top 10 grid slot.
Racing Bulls had an upgrade in Canada, and so did Haas – but the American outfit did not look as competitive. Audi have also started to drop back, but Alpine cannot rest on their laurels and assume their rivals won’t catch back up.
“There is a lot of hard work ahead if we are to improve our competitiveness,” said Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore. “The drivers still share similar feedback on the car and there is much more performance for us to find going into Monaco next time.”
But to be fifth in the championship, 14 points clear of Racing Bulls and with a points tally that already exceeds the entirety of what they managed to score all last year, Alpine are clearly in a good place with their 2026 car.
