According to Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, Alpine was overtaken by Racing Bulls in the final weeks before Formula 1's summer break.
Both drivers say it is simply a matter of car development – Red Bull's sister team has introduced more upgrades, and more effective ones, than the Enstone squad – which means Alpine is pinning a lot of hope on its upgrade package for Zandvoort.
On a personal level, however, Colapinto has found his stride since the April break. Before then, the gap to Gasly was often larger than he would have liked, but since the Miami Grand Prix, Colapinto has recorded five points finishes and finished ahead of his French team-mate four times on Sundays.
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Those results are in line with how Colapinto felt during winter testing in Bahrain, although the opening race weekends that followed proved difficult – a dip that Colapinto and the team struggled to explain at the time.
"I think having a new car, as well as two new cars, has been different compared to the test. In winter testing, I felt very strong and comfortable, but as soon as we moved to two cars in the first few races I really struggled," Colapinto told Motorsport.com.
Asked what exactly changed when the team switched to two chassis for Melbourne, Colapinto clarified that it was not so much about how the car felt, but rather what the stopwatch was showing: "It's not like the feeling was gone, the pace was gone, more than anything.
"I was still feeling good in the car, but I was looking at the lap times and that's the part I couldn't really understand or get my head around."
That made the first few race weekends particularly difficult to analyse. Colapinto said he still felt comfortable, but his feeling behind the wheel was no longer translating into the lap times he would have expected.
"I think the most important thing as a driver is to always understand why things happen, and to be honest, many times in the first few races I couldn't understand," he continued.
During the first three race weekends, Colapinto couldn’t always understand why he was losing time to Gasly, even though his feeling in the car was still good
In Miami, Colapinto was given a new and lighter chassis, although he stresses that he does not want to suggest there was anything wrong with the previous one. The problem was simply difficult to isolate within Alpine's overall package.
"I don't know if something was wrong, but when we put the entire package together after the first three rounds, everything just improved and the half-a-tenth that I was losing per corner was gone," he explained.
"It's tricky to know exactly what happened or why it was because when you change a lot of things, it's tricky to say, 'this is the reason why we are quicker now'.
"It's the same when you do many set-up changes and you are quicker, you don't know which one has been the biggest improvement."
The major upgrade package and the new chassis both played a role – although the team believes the latter also had a psychological effect – and the April break also contributed to what could be described as the Miami breakthrough.
In Miami, Colapinto was given a lighter chassis, although he says that is certainly not the only reason behind his improved form
During that month without races, Colapinto and the engineers had more time to analyse all the data in detail, with the Argentine stressing that significant progress was made in terms of energy management – a crucial topic in 2026.
"Yes, I think energy management is a key element that we are really consistent with now," he said.
"In Japan, I lost four tenths from one lap to another just by deploying differently or by going on throttle out of the last corner differently. I think after that race it became a lot more consistent and that is one of the steps we’ve made as a team.
"And personally, I think I was quite inconsistent in Japan as well, so those learnings have helped me a lot."
All of that has contributed to Colapinto taking a step forward and being able to compete with Gasly again. Alpine's next step is expected to come at Zandvoort, with the upgrade package that the French squad hopes will help it respond to Racing Bulls and find more pace overall.
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