Alpine: No points, with Pierre Gasly disqualified and Jack Doohan sanctioned
The French team closed a lousy weekend in China, last march in builders and is the only team that did not score in 2025.
Alpine left China’s GP with several issues to be more than worried. The A525 is not competitive, it is the car of worst performance, he stepped back after Australia, is the only one who did not add points in the year and ended with Pierre Gasly excluded by technique and Jack Doohan, sanctioned in duplicate.
To make the Racconto of the weekend of the French team you can start by the end. The Gasly car did not give the minimum weight in the review of the International Automobile Federation and was excluded from the race after ending 11th. His partner Doohan took a penalty of ten seconds for forcing Isack Hadkar to go off track in the defense that made the position in the final part of the race. The Australian penalty adds to the one they applied in the Sprint for colliding Gabriel Bortoleto and left with four points of superliccence (two for each incident).
Before the watchful eye of Franco Colapinto, reserve pilot, the passage of the Estone team through Shanghai was a step back with respect to Australia. Perhaps, the performance of the French cars resented the change they had to make on the rear wing after the modification made by the FIA in the flexibility controls. In addition, the long line of 1.2 kilometers is not favorable to the Renault engine, the weakest of the F1. All this combo can be part of the context of the weak walk, not of the sanctions, of course.
Both Gasly and Doohan stayed outside in Q1 in the two classifications that were made in China (that of the Sprint and that of the main race). In the short race, the Australian was in front of the French. The order was invested in the main competition, separated by only 100 thousandths. A lot of parity between both runners in the classification, the problem is the car.
In the Sprint, Gasly managed to move forward, while Doohan went back, showing some weakness in the race with respect to his partner. In Sunday’s race, the rhythms were very similar. A fact reflects it: the fastest return of the Australian was 1m36s424; while that of the French was 1m36s425. Yes, one thousandth of difference!
Gasly managed to advance until the 11th place, although later the disqualification arrived. Doohan was 13th on track, but with the sanction he fell to 16º. The Australian stretched the braking of curve 14 to defend himself from Hadjar’s attack, blocked and forced Racing Bulls to go outside the track. Beyond the precisely punished excess, in the final turns, with the tires of its Alpine much more spent than those of the French of Faenza’s Team, it could avoid being surpassed, showing Enjundia.
The closure of 2024 had excited Alpine with the possibility of having a more competitive 2025, in his last year with his own engine. From 2026, when the new technical regulation arrives, it will become a Mercedes client. Apparently in the first two appointments of the year, The Escudería de Estone will have a long season in which it will cost him a lot to add points. And that seems to be far beyond whether the ineffable Flavio Briatore decides to go down to Doohan and climb to Franco Colapinto. “Sooner or later he will get into the car,” said the team’s executive advisor. For now, Alpine’s big problem is the car, not the pilots. There is no holder or reservation that can do much with the performance shown by the A525.
