The 2026 F1 Dutch GP was an encouraging start to the second half of the 2026 F1 season for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. After placing himself P11 on the starting grid in Qualifying, a strong start saw the Frenchman running in the top ten as he capitalised on Verstappen’s crash on the opening lap.
The 30-year-old took the chequered flag in a hard-fought P10. Scoring Alpine their second championship point of the weekend, in addition to the point he had clinched in the Sprint. Following the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, Gasly sits P10 in the Drivers’ Standings with a total of 44 points to his name.
Despite a frustrating 2026 F1 Dutch GP outing, Gasly reflected on the weekend and shared that he is motivated by the progress Alpine has made throughout the weekend coming out of the summer break. The Frenchman also gave his insights on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s opening lap incident.
Gasly on Verstappen’s opening lap crash at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP
On the opening lap of the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, Max Verstappen brought out a red flag. The Dutchman had lost control on the inside of the final banking corner and slammed into the barriers with debris all over the circuit.
“Yeah, it was the most wet corner. I think extremely tricky even to get out of Turn 13. He just looked to me like he had a massive snap on the wet patches and just could not catch it.”
On the restart procedure
Gasly also spoke on the restart procedure at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP and shared his opinions on the race control’s decision to have one formation lap behind the safety car followed by a standing start.
The Frenchman reflected that due to the condition of the track, all cars were already starting on slick tyres. Therefore, Gasly said that he would rather have had a normal formation lap, as he would have been able to drive faster and more aggressively to warm up the tyres as the end of the lap was still quite wet at that stage.
According to the 30-year-old, race control should have chosen between having a rolling start behind the Safety car or having a standing start following a normal formation lap rather than a combination of both.
“I mean, if we would go the way we did with one lap behind the safety car and a standing start, I would have preferred to just do a normal outlap so I would have pushed a bit faster. I thought the point was to go at least once through the last corner and the banking with the safety car before to do the normal race starts. And yeah, it was damp. I mean, I think we obviously would have still put the slick tyres on. I don’t think it would have changed much. So it was just the conditions and the tyre choice. But I mean, I’m sure we’ll review the next race what was the drivers’ feedback. But yeah, I think it was either no safety car and only one formation lap or it was the safety car that gave us one extra lap.”
How Racing Bulls “ruined” Gasly’s race
Entering the second half of the 2026 F1 season, Racing Bulls remains Alpine’s main midfield rival in the Constructors’ Championship.
Following the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, Gasly had lamented the Faezna outfit’s strategy, adding that Racing Bulls had ” ruined” Alpine’s race. Not only was the Frenchman stuck behind Arvid Lindblad for seven laps, but on his first attempt to overtake, he was also passed easily by both Nico Hülkenberg, with Yuki Tsunoda going bold and brave in turn 7.
Gasly once again found himself behind a Racing Bulls at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP as he exited behind Tsunoda after his second pit stop, and he took a total of ten laps to overtake the Japanese driver.
While neither Racing Bulls driver scored points, with Tsunoda and Lindblad finishing in P11 and P12, respectively, this still had a significant impact on Gasly, who missed out on a potential P8 or P9 finish.
Nonetheless, the Frenchman is looking forward to actually competitive racing against Racing Bulls after trailing them recently.
“VCARB ruined our race in the middle part of the race, played a team game for the championship and did it well. I mean, it just made me lose a position to Nico [ Hülkenberg] and [Yuki] Tsunoda and I don’t know how many seconds of race time. Congrats to them, and I can’t wait to race them.
“Annoying, but it’s Zandvoort. Can’t really overtake and this is going to change in the coming tracks. The good thing is I have a good memory. I’m going to make sure we smile at the end of the year.”
Motivated by Alpine’s progress
Alpine brought their first major upgrade package of the 2026 F1 season to the 2026 F1 Dutch GP. A total of eight performance upgrades were brought, including an altered floor body, a new rear impact structure and a reworked rear wing.
When asked how the upgrades have performed throughout the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, Gasly was quick to share that he felt more comfortable and confident in his newly upgraded A526.
Despite a set-up change following the Sprint not having the impact Alpine would have hoped for, Gasly reflected that “there’s a lot of positives to take” for the weekend in Zandvoort.
However, tyre degradation remains one of the main aspects Alpine struggles with. Nonetheless, Gasly is confident Alpine will be able to resolve the issue if they continue working with this positive momentum.
“I think overall positive, definitely took us back to that battle for the top ten. Felt better in the car in the Sprint, which made a couple of changes for the race, which I think overall made things slightly more tricky. But obviously we’re still learning about this package, so I think overall good data. Still managed to get a point out of the race, which was not ideal, let’s say, in terms of overall race time. And I think there’s a lot of positives to take.
“In terms of overall performance, yes. We’re still struggling a bit on deck with tyres and degradation, but we’ll keep working and I think we should be OK.”
