One F1 group “misplaced a fiver, discovered a pound” in Australian GP

Alpine Formulation 1 chief Steve Nielsen says the group “misplaced a fiver, discovered a pound” after an Australian Grand Prix the place it carried out under expectations regardless of a factors end.

The Enstone outfit slumped to final within the constructors’ standings final 12 months, however felt prefer it got here into the 2026 marketing campaign in a a lot stronger place after pre-season testing.

Alpine’s greatest qualifier was Pierre Gasly in 14th, although he “drove like a hero” to safe the ultimate level in tenth within the grand prix.

Nielsen says combating for decrease factors was the expectation, however felt the automobile carried out weaker than anticipated to get that end result.

“I mentioned to somebody earlier that I really feel like I’ve misplaced a fiver and located a pound,” he mentioned in Melbourne.

“So, we got here right here from Bahrain with expectations to be racing for lower-order factors, however extra strongly than it turned out that we had been.

“We managed to get some extent, Pierre drove like a hero, which is nice.

“However, a few of our rivals have put upgrades on between Bahrain testing and right here.

“We haven’t. We have to do one thing about that. We’ve got efficiency coming.

“We have to get it on the automobile as a result of we’re simply not fast sufficient.”

Updates coming, however gained’t be prepared in time for China

Nielsen says Alpine can have updates within the automobile to rectify the high-speed understeer it was experiencing in Australia, however these gained’t be prepared till after the Chinese language Grand Prix.

“I feel maybe we might have performed a greater job in qualifying with tyre prep and stuff on the outlaps, so there’s undoubtedly stuff there we will be taught,” he added.

“Excessive-speed stability is certainly not the most effective, so we have to repair that.

“However yeah, there’s undoubtedly stuff we will do higher. If we had been beginning this race now, we’d undoubtedly do issues in a different way, notably in qualifying. However everybody will let you know that.”

Requested the place the automobile was shedding out in Melbourne, he replied: “It manifests itself as understeer.

“So, we have now high-speed understeer. We talked about it earlier than. We noticed a few of that in Bahrain.

“The character of this circuit is there’s extra high-speed, in order that in all probability comes larger.

“So, we do perceive it. We do have elements coming hopefully that may repair it.

“However they gained’t be on the automobile in China. It’s an harm we’re carrying for the time being that I want we weren’t. However I feel we all know methods to get on high of it.”