Pierre Gasly drags Alpine from the back of the grid to the front of the midfield
Twelve months ago, Alpine were the team nobody wanted to be racing. The Enstone outfit propped up the order for much of 2025, and Pierre Gasly spent his Sundays fighting for scraps rather than silverware. The 2026 season has rewritten that story almost beyond recognition. Alpine arrived this year with a transformed package, and Gasly has been the driver turning that potential into hard results weekend after weekend.
The headline shift is mechanical. For the first time, Alpine switched to Mercedes power units for 2026, ending the era of works engines at the back of the Enstone factory. The change has given the team a far stronger foundation, and the early evidence is striking: Alpine have already out-paced Red Bull at points this season, a sentence that would have read as fantasy a year ago.
A points streak that sets Gasly apart
Consistency, not just raw speed, has defined Gasly’s campaign. He has been the only driver outside the Mercedes and Ferrari camps to score points in every Grand Prix so far in 2026. In a year where the front of the field has been dominated by those two manufacturers, that statistic underlines just how reliably the Frenchman has dragged his Alpine into the top ten.
It is the kind of run that turns a driver from a midfield name into a genuine threat. Every weekend Gasly banks something, and that steady accumulation is exactly what a team rebuilding its reputation needs. Rivals who expected Alpine to drift back into anonymity have instead found Gasly parked among them at every flag.
The Monaco podium that came, went, and came back
The defining moment of Gasly’s season so far played out not entirely on the track, but in the stewards’ room. At the Monaco Grand Prix he initially crossed the line in a position that should have delivered a podium, only to be classified seventh after two five-second penalties for pit-lane speeding were applied.
Alpine refused to accept the outcome. The team lodged a Right of Review, and on 12 June 2026 the FIA agreed to revisit the case. The stewards rescinded both five-second penalties, restoring Gasly to third place at Monaco and handing the Enstone team a podium that had looked lost.
The reinstatement had a direct cost for a rival. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who had been classified third in the revised order, was dropped back to fourth once Gasly’s result was corrected. For a team that spent 2025 watching others celebrate, reclaiming a podium through sheer persistence carried a symbolism well beyond the points it delivered.
| Detail | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Classified finish (pre-review) | Gasly 7th |
| Penalties involved | Two five-second pit-lane speeding penalties |
| Right of Review date | 12 June 2026 |
| Stewards’ decision | Both penalties rescinded |
| Reinstated position | Gasly 3rd (podium restored) |
| Knock-on effect | Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar dropped to 4th |
How the Mercedes switch reshaped Alpine
The engine change is the thread running through every part of Alpine’s revival. Moving to Mercedes power has not simply added straight-line speed; it has given the chassis engineers a more competitive baseline to build around. The result is a car that can race the establishment rather than survive behind it.
That broader Mercedes shadow looms over much of the 2026 narrative. The works Mercedes team and its drivers have been the benchmark all year, and the questions surrounding their internal pecking order have shaped the season’s storylines. The debate over how Russell must beat Antonelli by controlling the small details has been a recurring theme, and George Russell’s own push for a smooth weekend to reset Mercedes shows how fine the margins are even at the sharp end. Alpine, now drinking from the same engine well, are increasingly part of that conversation rather than spectators to it.
Targeting Ferrari and McLaren before the summer break
Gasly is not treating the Monaco podium as a ceiling. His stated ambition is for Alpine to be fighting Ferrari and McLaren by the summer break, a target that would have sounded absurd at the end of 2025 but now reads as a logical next step. Closing on those two teams would confirm that the early-season pace was no fluke.
The competitive picture at the front has been volatile all year. McLaren themselves have had to navigate a tightening contest, with the team forced to look back into the Mercedes battle after Barcelona practice, a dynamic captured in coverage of how McLaren found themselves back in the Mercedes fight. If the established names are trading blows that closely, the door is open for a surging Alpine to force its way into the discussion.
Momentum heads to the Red Bull Ring
That momentum now points toward Austria. The Austrian Grand Prix takes place at the Red Bull Ring on 28 June 2026, and Gasly carries his points-scoring streak and freshly defended Monaco podium into one of the calendar’s most demanding short laps. The Spielberg circuit rewards a strong power unit and a confident car, two things Alpine suddenly possess.
For a driver who spent last season anchored to the back of the field, the contrast could hardly be sharper. Gasly heads to Austria not hoping to sneak into the points but expecting them, and with one eye on the bigger targets he has set for the weeks before the summer shutdown. Whether Alpine can truly close on Ferrari and McLaren remains to be seen, but the resurgence is already one of the defining stories of the 2026 season.
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