Alpine needs to turn a page in its history. Team boss Flavio Briatore insisted on swapping from Renault to Mercedes power, removing one long-standing excuse for its underperformance. The Enstone-based team finished last year at the bottom of the constructors’ championship and its engineers have responded by exploiting the new regulations with curiosity and creativity.
The A526, overseen by David Sanchez, has the ambition of taking the French brand to where a factory team should be, after its extremely difficult 2025 season. One of the reasons cited for the below-par points haul last season, apart from the power unit, was an early pivot to focus exclusively on the challenge of 2026 – and this week we got the first proper opportunity to see the results.
