The 2026 F1 Austrian GP was a challenging weekend for Alpine; Franco Colapinto, who started in P16, moved up only one spot to finish P15, a lap down on the race winner, George Russell. The combination of higher track temperatures and a general lack of pace left both drivers out of the points.
The Argentinian driver now sits P12 in the 2026 F1 Drivers’ Championship, three places behind teammate Pierre Gasly in P9.
Colapinto is confused by the lack of pace at the 2026 F1 Austrian GP
The Argentinian reflected on the difficult weekend at the Red Bull Ring and admitted that he could not understand why Alpine struggled with pace at the track, especially considering their strong performance at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP.
Both Gasly and Colapinto had finished in the points in P9 and P10 last time out. Similar to the 2026 F1 Austrian GP, it shared similar characteristics of higher track temperature and severe tyre degradation.
“No, we really struggled. I think this weekend in general was more difficult than the previous ones. I just don’t really understand at the minute why we lack so much pace compared to Barcelona. It’s not such a different track to Barcelona. We were really slow in the race, even. We didn’t have the car in a good place. It was a long race, I think. In general, nothing really clicked.”
A difficult race from the start
On the opening lap of the 2026 F1 Austrian GP, it was evident that both Alpines, including Colapinto’s, struggled with early power unit issues. The 23-year-old lost a significant number of places before the first lap was completed. He fell to the back.
This placed the Argentinian’s A526 in an unfortunate position where he spent the majority of the race struggling to overtake. He did beat Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon when the flag fell.
According to Colapinto, his Alpine lacked substantial pace compared to his rivals at the 2026 F1 Austrian GP. He also recounted facing intense overheating, which only added to his challenges on track.
Franco Colapinto now plans to study the data with Alpine to understand their struggles ahead of the upcoming weekend in Silverstone.
“Qualifying a bit unlucky; then in the start I had no power. I was last in turn one; I was stopped. I did a good launch and then the car stopped. It didn’t go forward. Out of T1, I had no power again; more cars passed me. It was a pretty bad start, and then I could get some places, but I didn’t have a lot more pace than the cars ahead. It was quite tough to pass and a lot of overheating. The rears were really struggling. I just need to understand a bit more and hopefully get better for the next race.”
Understanding the limitations in high-speed corners
Ahead of the 2026 F1 Austrian GP, Colapinto lamented his struggles with the A526’s balance and stability in high-speed corners in Barcelona.
When asked if the problem continued at the Red Bull Ring, the 23-year-old shared that the A526 struggled as a whole but reflected that his Alpine struggled more out of the corners.
“Yes, but mechanically we’ve been really bad this weekend. I think we couldn’t go forward. Out of the corners, we were really struggling with traction, putting a lot of energy on the tyres in the braking, and then having no traction at all out of the low speed.”
While he is unsure if the higher track temperature played a role, he did recount his Alpine performing best during FP2 when the track was cooler.
Colapinto hopes to look through the data to better understand the situation and to maximise the upgrades they brought to the 2026 F1 Austrian GP.
“I don’t know if it’s the heat or what, but it generally felt very bad. FP2 long run was not in a bad place. It was a bit cooler, and today was again 10 degrees hotter track temp, and we struggled much, much more.I don’t know if it gives us a bit of direction, but generally it was a poor weekend. I want to understand now, but we haven’t done a good weekend here.
“We brought some upgrades. I think we just need to understand what happened with them and if we can maximise them more.”
