Nielsen sets Alpine's bar high for 2026: 'I want to be competing every weekend'

Franco Colapinto is spending the last days of the year in Argentina before once again setting off for Enstone, where the great challenge of his sporting life awaits him: his first full preseason as a Formula 1 driver. The driver from Pilar will face a key 2026 with Alpine, a team that restructured its project and is aiming for a competitive leap after a disappointing 2025.

The French team abandoned development of the A525 single-seaters early and poured all its work into the 2026 car, a decision that was contrary to that of other teams. In that context, Steve Nielsen, the general manager of the French outfit, expressed his expectations frankly: "I want to be competing every weekend and, hopefully, for points. This year we haven't achieved that," he acknowledged.

Regarding the performance in 2025, he was even more blunt: "Too often we've been far off, at the back, and that isn't the place where this team belongs, it isn't where Enstone traditionally is, it isn't what Alpine wants, and it isn't where any of us wants to be," he stated, setting the demand to fight "in the upper part of the midfield for points."

Unlike in recent years, Alpine will no longer race in isolation in engine terms. In 2026 it will become a customer of Mercedes, leaving Renault power units behind to be equipped with the same power unit as the works team, champion McLaren, and Williams. The technological leap could be decisive in leveling the playing field.

Nielsen also accepted the pressure of that inevitable comparison. "We'll be measured against the other three Mercedes teams, and I hope we won't be fourth out of four. But as long as we make the jump to the midfield, the rest is simply the natural order of things from there, and if we have to develop the car, which of course we will, we'll move up. But yes, there are three other teams that we'll be measured directly against," he concluded.

When F1 returns

The top category will resume action in the early-season preseason with three test sessions: one in Barcelona (from January 26 to 30) and two in Bahrain (from February 11 to 13 and from February 18 to 20 of the same month).

In that regard, only in March will the category's formal calendar begin with the Australian Grand Prix, which will be held from the 6th to the 8th at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.