wall of Takayama It was the Enstone-based team themselves who preempted relegation in the Constructors’ World Championship, but he looks on with amazement and astonishment. for him Executive advisor Flavio Briatore says the origins of the current drama go back 10 years.a decision he made renaultOn the other hand, for the garage manager, steve nielsenthe performance difference that the A525 model has with its rivals lies, in part, in the fact that: The rest maintained single-seater development, with Alpine halting work in June to focus on the 2026 model year car.a calendar containing formula 1 A new cycle begins with fundamental changes in technical and engine regulations.
The reasons for the two observations are as follows. Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly They look lost at each Grand Prix, not understanding the ups and downs from training sessions to qualifying. qualified On the run. For both pilots, The season turned to suffering And this track, like the classifier, reveals an unequal battle with 18 rivals.
With three days remaining on the calendar, Sauber’s 40-point lead over Alpine looks like something that cannot really be discounted. The course has 24 stations. The team discontinued development of the A525 after finishing ninth after the Spanish Grand Prix.. Nielsen joined the team in September and the brakes were applied in June.
“There are many reasons why our cars aren’t fast enough, but the biggest one is It’s not good and we need to build something better. I am confident that we can achieve this goal. It’s no secret what we did One of the first teams to change focus for 2026for the many technological changes that will occur in the future. The sooner you start the work, the more developed your car will be when you start racing.” analyzed a British engineer who first experienced the F.1 at Lotus in 1986.
“I think it’s the right thing to do. It’s the only thing.” We were a little surprised to see that many of our competitors continue to develop their cars throughout the year.. For example, Haas introduced significant aerodynamic improvements at Austin (dated 19). We didn’t expect that, but our objective was clear and we are happy. I wish we were more competitive. I hope that the pain we are experiencing will be justified next year” he explained in an interview. Motorsport.com.
Reasons and motives, another aspect Nielsen tried to uncover. The pre-season test that excited Briatore now comes in question. “When the team tested in Bahrain, the car looked very competitive,” he said. Gasly achieved Q3 in qualifying tests in three of the first six Grand Prix races, and was outstanding in Bahrain, starting in fifth place and finishing seventh. Alpine’s 22 points in the Constructors’ World Championship will be divided evenly until the ninth round, when development concludes, with the next chapter being contested in Canada. The biggest win was at Silverstone, which used a French driver.
In his speech, Nielsen explained the operational reasons for halting development. “Most teams only have access to one wind tunnel and their working hours are regulated. For us, keeping the 2025 car in the wind tunnel means not being able to work on the 2026 car.” You could do both, but it would be a very inefficient way of working.Because removing one model and adding another means downtime for the wind tunnel. Hours and days are wasted in readjustments.. That’s why we thought the best option to make the biggest leap forward was not to develop this year’s car,” said the man who spoke out against Colapinto’s disobedience to the team’s orders not to pass Gasly in Austin.
Wind tunnel time scale favors AlpineThis is because teams classified last among constructors have more time for development. Briatore set the bar high for next season, predicting 2025 will be an auspicious year, and also detailed Alpine’s period of decline. Never in history has Renault dropped to 10th in the team standings.
“We want to be in the top six (on the grid). Once you’re in 6th or 7th place, the race starts and you can already smell the podium. But when you’re in 14th or 15th place, forget it.. My dream is to be competitive, so to speak, and to reach that level,” said the Italian, who also misses his successful days at Renault and Benetton, where he celebrated titles with Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.
“we are here to win. We are not tourists who come to travel around the world. This situation is very difficult for us. Not used to it: I was used to it 20 years ago, but I’m not used to it now. Every Sunday is torture. they don’t have a chance. When you arrive at the circuit, you’ll see the mechanics hard at work setting up their garages. Even though you see everyone working hard, you never get a chance to enjoy the race, earn points and go home. It’s very frustrating. I hope next year I can recover everything in duplicate” Briatore analyzed in an interview. racebefore the Great Circus disembarked at San Pablo.
In an interview, Alpine’s executive advisor gave his opinion on the moment when Renault’s decline began, which led to Renault becoming a Mercedes customer team in 2026 and the closure of the Viry-Chatillon engine factory. “With the new engine regulations in 2014 (hybrid era), Perhaps Renault didn’t take engine production costs as seriously as the FIA would have liked. Everyone invested a lot of money: Mercedes, Honda, Ferrari. And Renault remained as if nothing had happened.. I don’t blame anyone, but perhaps the management at the time didn’t have the courage to tell Carlos Ghosn (Renault CEO) to take F.1 seriously. Now we have a result,” he explained. Except for 2016, when Renault finished 9th, they fluctuated between 6th and 4th for the rest of the season, but 2020 was their best performance, finishing 3rd among manufacturers.
The memories of the golden age will never fade, nor will the advantages that come with riding a Renault engine. “In 1995 I fought to get that engine because Williams blocked it. And that year we won 80 percent of the races. For me, Renault represented the best engines in the world. But without resources, it’s very difficult to be competitive.“Perhaps the new era will mean the return of the iconic brand of the Grand Circus,” commented Briatore, the man who went looking for Colapinto to join his system and the man who laid down the hammer so that the Argentine could take part in the F.1 championship for the first time next year.
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