Franco Colapinto and Alpine lived an unthinkable day in Australia

The French team was left far away in training for the first F1 round in Melbourne. The Argentine was 18th among the 20 drivers who turned. Pierre Gasly placed 16th.

Alpine closed the first day of the 2026 Formula 1 season with a grimace. It is not about making a world for two training sessions of the initial date of the 77th World Cup season, especially since it is the official premiere of a revolutionary technical change. But the Enstone team expected more, there is no doubt. A single piece of information validates that: Flavio Briatore, as the boss, decided to throw away the 2025 championship to use every resource of the plant in the construction and design of this year’s A526 chassis. The Italian also decided to cancel Renault engines to become a Mercedes-Benz customer. For this reason, the positions of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly at the close of Friday’s Australian GP should not have satisfied anyone.

The first training had all the users of the star brand power units far from the top. In the preview it was expected that the Mercedes engines would dominate, but the initial test showed another scenario. Beyond the fact that the Alpine had been the worst users of the Arrows power unit, it is not that others with the same tool had shone. However, in the second session the first three were drivers pushed by German power: Oscar Piastri was first with his McLaren, followed by Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, from the Stuttgart brand’s full team. And Alpine? He was once again the one who was furthest away with the same engine.

Colapinto finished 18th, with 1m22.619, 2.890 behind Piastri. In the first start he was 3s058 behind Charles Leclerc. The times went down, but the distance of the A526 was almost the same. The Argentine was ahead only of Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac), because further behind were the Aston Martins (which it is not known if they will be able to start Sunday’s race and they only made a handful of laps) and Checo Pérez, who was stopped on the track on his turn out of the pits.

Gasly, Franco’s teammate, was faster (he beat him by 452 thousandths), but he could barely be 16th, ahead of Carlos Sainz, who turned nine laps on the medium tire before being kept in the pits for the rest of the session with problems in his Williams.. Precisely the Grove cars, also users of Mercedes power units, arrived in Australia with their fat FW48s after failing an FIA crash test, however they were ahead of the Alpines, which arrived in Melbourne with the goal of fighting for the head of the middle zone of the grid. “I didn’t expect to have all the problems we’ve had since this morning,” said the Frenchman at the end of the day and after doing 15 laps in the second session (he didn’t do a race simulation because he had a problem that left him in the pits).

Colapinto suffered a slight mistake in the second round (he completed 26 laps) and, as if that were not enough, he had a clash with Lewis Hamilton. The Argentine was traveling extremely slowly along the main straight and along the ideal trajectory. The six-time champion was traveling at full speed with his Ferrari and had to swerve around the Alpine to avoid a serious accident. The stewards noted the situation and would evaluate a possible sanction for the Argentine.

There were two rounds of rehearsals, the first of the year, in a season that will experience enormous development in all teams. Not to mention the world, but there is no doubt that Alpine closed Friday with a grimace. Far away in positions and times, leaving almost the same image as 2025, when the expectation for the start was gigantic in the face of such decisions that were made at the main desks of the team for this year. This Saturday the third round and the classification will be played (early morning in Latin America) and there everyone’s reality will be seen. For now, the French are on the side of debit.