One F1 team “lost a fiver, found a pound” in Australian GP

Alpine Method 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 yr, 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 preventing for decrease factors was the expectation, however felt the automotive carried out weaker than anticipated to get that consequence.

“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 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 efficiency coming.

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

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

Nielsen says Alpine may have updates within the automotive 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 believe maybe we might have performed a greater job in qualifying with tyre prep and stuff on the outlaps, so there’s positively stuff there we will study,” he added.

“Excessive-speed steadiness is unquestionably not the perfect, so we have to repair that.

“However yeah, there’s positively stuff we will do higher. If we had been beginning this race now, we’d positively do issues in another way, 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 now have 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 elements coming hopefully that may repair it.

“However they gained’t be on the automotive in China. It’s an damage we’re carrying in the mean time that I want we weren’t. However I believe we all know learn how to get on high of it.”