One F1 team “lost a fiver, found 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 beneath 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 automotive carried out weaker than anticipated to get that end result.

“I stated to somebody earlier that I really feel like I’ve misplaced a fiver and located a pound,” he stated 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 have been.

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

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

“We haven’t. We have to do one thing about that. Now we have efficiency coming.

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

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

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

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

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

“However yeah, there’s positively stuff we will do higher. If we have been beginning this race now, we’d positively do issues otherwise, significantly in qualifying. However everybody will inform you that.”

Requested the place the automotive was dropping 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 most likely comes greater.

“So, we do perceive it. We do have components coming hopefully that can repair it.

“However they received’t be on the automotive in China. It’s an damage we’re carrying in the meanwhile that I want we weren’t. However I believe we all know get on high of it.”