Alpine’s Pierre Gasly stays upbeat despite lowly position on F1 grid, as he eyes 2026 changes

SINGAPORE – Sitting 16th in the Formula One drivers’ standings, Pierre Gasly is just above five of his peers – two of them his Alpine teammates Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto.

But as the Frenchman sits at the head of a table during a media session at the Alpine motor home at the Singapore Grand Prix paddock on Oct 2, there is an air of confidence that exudes from him.

Fresh off inking a contract extension through the 2028 campaign with the Enstone-based team on Sept 6, the 29-year-old’s optimism stems from the opportunities he sees next season.

The 2026 campaign will see the introduction of sweeping new regulations in the biggest overhaul of the sport in more than a decade.

This gives Alpine a chance to wipe the slate clean. They are bottom of the grid on the constructors’ standings, with 20 points – all of which have come via Gasly, whose sixth-placed finish at July’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone is the best he and the team have achieved this season.

“At the start of the year, it (a new contract) was clearly not like a no-brainer because we are going through a difficult season, harder than we thought,” said Gasly, adding that he and his team agreed that if they want to seize the opportunity to put the team at the top of the grid, they needed to be “quite aggressive and quite bold in our approach”.

“This year, we decided to stop the development of the car very early on, to focus and basically switch all the resources we have on to 2026 to try to get a head start on the others.

“Which means, yeah, we’re struggling this year for these reasons, but hopefully, it put us in a much stronger position straight from early 2026, so in terms of technical staff, all the processes back at the factory, I can see everything is moving forward.

“With all the changes we’re making for next year, I think we should be in a great position to fight for the front of the grid.”

But before the 2026 season comes around, there are still seven races in the current campaign in which Alpine will look to secure enough points to avoid the dreaded wooden spoon.

Ninth-placed Haas have a 24-point cushion on them.

Gasly expects the Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix weekend to be tricky for his side, given the current weather forecast, but in typical fashion, he is not counting himself out.

Temperatures are set to hit a minimum of 30 deg C on all three days of track action, and at least 31 deg C on the Oct 5 race day, which has prompted F1 to declare the Singapore race as the

first official “heat hazard”

.

Early afternoon showers have also been forecast for race day.

“I know Singapore is going to be challenging but this is the sort of track where I see maybe more opportunities than any other traditional track,” said Gasly, who finished 17th at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 2024, but a high sixth the year before.

“Just from a street track point of view, the conditions are going to be tough for everyone. It’s also very unpredictable with the weather. But really, from a track layout, if it’s a standard type of weekend, we know it's going to be challenging, but still we got to try our best and see what we can get out of it.”

While Gasly’s seat in F1 is secured until at least 2028, his teammate Colapinto – who remains the only driver currently on the grid yet to score a point – sits in a precarious position with uncertainty over whether he will continue with Alpine.

The Argentinian joined the French squad from Williams over the winter, initially as a reserve, before being parachuted in to replace Doohan after just six rounds.

But the 22-year-old has underwhelmed.

When asked if he sees the remaining races as opportunities to stake his claim, Colapinto – who finished 11th in Singapore in 2024 – shrugged his shoulders and said: “I try to take it race by race, moment by moment, and try to do my best, and that’s really it.”

Looking ahead, he added: “I see many good things (from Alpine for next season. Very positive stuff. We need to try and keep working together. Keep staying positive and try to make a very fast car for next year.”