Colapinto: “There are things that are not working as they should”
The start of the 2026 season Formula One was not what was expected Franco Colapinto not even for the team Alpine. After the first two free practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prixthe Argentine driver acknowledged that the French team faces significant performance problems and still cannot understand the origin of the drop in performance.
At the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Colapinto closed the day on Friday in 18th place among the 20 drivers who turnedwhile his partner Pierre Gasly finished 16th. The times reflected a considerable difference compared to the most competitive teams of the day.
Colapinto, very critical of what was done on Friday in Australia
After finishing the activity on the track, the Argentine pilot spoke with AM850 about the difficulties the team is going through at the start of the championship.
“There are things that are not working as they should,” Colapinto explained when analyzing the performance of the A526 during the first day of activity.
The Alpine driver admitted that the team is still trying to understand what is happening with the car, since the sensations do not match what they had observed in previous preparation.
“It’s a bit of an understanding of why we are so bad. It’s a question that for now has no answer. We had seen some clear things that we had in the car to work on that are not working as they should.”
The lack of performance was reflected both in the lap times and in the general behavior of the car.
Balance problems and lack of downforce
One of the main drawbacks that Colapinto detected is related to the car’s balance in corners, a key aspect to achieving speed on a technical circuit like Melbourne.
“We do not understand the huge failure in performance compared to other teams. The corners go very slowly, we do not have balance, the necessary load.”
The difference in the stopwatch also evidenced this difficulty. In the second session on Friday, Colapinto scored 1m22s619remaining 2s890 from best time of the day, recorded by Oscar Piastri.
Although the times improved compared to the first training session – when they had been more than three seconds behind the lead – the distance with respect to the most competitive teams remained practically the same.
Gasly, his teammate, was a little faster and finished 452 thousandths aheadalthough he also failed to get close to the middle zone of the grid.
An unexpected start for Alpine in 2026
The performance of the French team generates surprise within the paddock. Alpine had faced the season with high expectations after a profound technical restructuring.
The A526 project was developed for much of the last year, after team management decided to prioritize the 2026 car over the previous championship. Besides, Alpine abandoned Renault engines to become a Mercedes-Benz customera strategic decision designed to improve performance.
However, on the first day of the championship, Flavio Briatore’s team ended up being the furthest behind among the teams using the German power unit.
A complicated Friday in Melbourne
The day was not easy on the track for Colapinto either. During the second round of training The Argentinian made a slight mistake and also lived a tense situation with Lewis Hamilton.
The Alpine driver was driving very slowly on the main straight when the seven-time world champion approached at high speed with his Ferrari. Hamilton had to make an evasive maneuver to avoid contactan action that was recorded by the sports commissioners for analysis.
Despite the drawbacks, Colapinto completed 26 laps during the second sessionaccumulating important information for the team.
Alpine seeks answers ahead of Saturday qualifying
Beyond Friday’s difficulties, the Argentine driver is confident that the team can find solutions before the decisive day of the weekend.
“It was a complicated, long day, all day looking for answers and improvements that we did not find. We will look for the best possible performance tomorrow.”
On Saturday in Melbourne it will be held the third free practice session and classificationinstances that will allow us to know more precisely the true potential of each team at the start of the season.
