Alpine F1 completed a positive practice day ahead of the 2026 São Paulo GP , collecting a great deal of information about Interlagos and steering away from trouble. The first Practice session of the weekend had seen rookie driver Gabriele Minì filling in for Pierre Gasly, with Colapinto joining him on track.
The Italian, currently driving for MP Motorsport in his second full time Formula 2 season, showed promising pace, managing to secure a strong P7, finishing ahead of Colapinto in P9. Afterwards, Gasly returned behind the wheel of his car no.10. The two drivers for the French outlet were the first out on track under the dark clouds, completing a consistent session.
Three drivers, three 2026 F1 São Paulo GP experiences for Alpine
Colapinto ended his day in P11, just 0.005s off Bearman’s P10, whereas Gasly, third place finisher at the track back in 2024, achieved only a fourteenth place, still coming to grips with the Interlagos circuit with less laps under his belt.
Alpine F1 Managing Director Steve Nielsen summarised the strong pace and performance the three drivers showcased on the first day of the 2026 São Paulo GP, praising especially the talented Minì, fastest rookie on track in only his second Formula 1 outing ever.
“Well, really good for Gabri, obviously. In FP1 he did a very good job, to be a little bit quicker than his teammate. Second weekend in a row for him and he looks like a seasoned campaigner already. He literally didn’t put a foot wrong, which is really good.”
Alpine has not maximised their potential up to now, according to its Managing Director
Nielsen then highlighted the aspects which prevented Colapinto and Gasly from maximising the potential of their A526, including the peculiar weather and track conditions as well as a small lack of feeling on the former Red Bull driver’s side.
“FP2, obviously quite changeable conditions, looking at it now. Everybody was going green sectors up until about halfway through and then almost nobody was. Franco did his time just before that. Pierre, I think, has got the speed in the car but didn’t really get to post the time.”
“Not happy about the kerb riding and the ride generally, Pierre, but I think it’s not major. So we think the time’s in the car and a few small changes overnight and more predictable conditions tomorrow should see that done out.
The Managing Director also underlined the rather strong pressure on all young drivers taking part in official sessions, stressing the incredible jobs thus done by Minì by completing two very positive sessions in consecutive racing weekends and at rather different tracks.
“It’s very difficult. These cars are incredibly complex to drive and control. Obviously we’re looking at him. He knows that he’s under scrutiny, he’s compared to his teammate, everybody else is looking at him. It’s a big task.”
“And they’re young, well, to me at least, they’re young kids. So, I think it’s a tremendous sort of sensory overload for them, I’m sure. They know that their career is being assessed in a few sessions, and he came out of it really well.”
The entire teams aims to improve their pace conversion into points
Alpine has managed to score only one point between both sides of the garage in the past five races, with technical issues, but also driving mistakes and a teammate collision hindering the chances of the Enstone-based team. While not all of the accidents were directly caused by Colapinto and Gasly, Nielsen calls for improvements throughout all the Alpine F1 facility, aiming at confirming the potential shown in FP1 in all the following sessions of the 2026 São Paulo GP.
“ [All racing weekends], They’re all important. On too many occasions this year, we’ve had a car that’s fast, people are getting points, even scoring points, and then for various reasons, we don’t bank the points. Not that this season’s over now, but I think the review of this season will be that we didn’t make the best of what we had. There’s been mistakes from drivers, there’s been mistakes from the team. And we just have to be better.”
Colapinto has a positive feeling ahead of Interlagos
Former Williams F1 driver Franco Colapinto was confident following his first day at Interlagos, reckoning the strong performance and car feeling he had managed to develop throughout his two practice sessions.
“In terms of competitiveness of the car, we are looking good. A lot to work on in terms of balance and to be comfortable in the seat at the moment, but generally I think it was a good day in terms of pace of the car, but a lot to improve on. I think we have a lot of margin and areas we can focus on for tomorrow. Let’s see how the weather is tomorrow first, and how much we can do in the car.”
Asked about tyre degradation, the young Argentinian admits he had anticipated more challenging conditions than the ones he has encountered thus far.
“I was expecting worse. I think it’s not too bad, at least in the dry. In the wet, good luck. I think there will be a bit more of a change in tarmac and grip level around braking to corner entries, but at the moment not too poor.”
Minì glad to confirm the positive sensations he had had on his Mexican debut
Alpine Academy member Gabriele Minì was rather content with his first experience of the very famous Brazilian F1 circuit in the 2026 São Paulo GP, as well as with the strong driving and consistent performance he was able to showcase. He additionally expressed his pleasure with having a chance to driver Formula 1 machinery at such an illustrious and historical track, where many key moments of the history of single seater have happened.
“It was pretty cool. It’s my first time even in Brazil, so everything is amazing. Track is really nice, it’s one of the shortest of the calendar, but it’s one of the coolest, in my opinion. It’s not the easiest one, because the pack is so close, and it’s quite bumpy, so it’s easy to make mistakes. But, in the end, I really like the flow of it.”
“We also had a pretty good session, we managed to have a good running for some error testing we had to do at the beginning, and then also good performance runs after that, where we we got useful data. At the same time, we showed a good performance, so I’m quite happy with it.”
A rather different F1 experience
Asked how different was his second official Formula 1 experience compared to his first Mexican outing, Minì praised the specifics of the Brazilian layout and the less peculiar conditions compared to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
“The only time I’ve driven in front before this event was in Mexico, which is a pretty particular one. It’s more unique in terms of grip and everything, so it’s a bit different. It’s much more grip. You can push much more to the limit of the car in this track. It’s cool as a driver to have more grip, so I enjoyed it quite a lot.”
