Pierre Gasly’s Brazil GP performance surprised the Formula 1 paddock as the Alpine F1 driver finally ended his post-summer points drought. The Alpine A525 showed pace that neither Gasly nor the team expected, especially after weeks of poor form and halted development for 2026.
Alpine arrived in São Paulo after its toughest spell since the 1980s. The last five races delivered little, with 15th in Mexico being their best result. Yet Gasly qualified eighth for the sprint and kept the spot to score a point.
“For me it was night and day with what I felt since three months,” he said. “I’ll take it, and I must say it put a bigger smile on my face this morning, waking up – knowing that I had a car to race.”
Gasly Says More Pace Was Possible
Gasly started ninth on Sunday and finished 10th after a tight midfield fight. “Very happy, because last time we scored points on a Sunday was in Spa before the summer break, and it’s been a very long walk in the middle of nowhere for three months.”
He admitted he lost key positions on the straights. “If I’ve got to be honest, I’m a little disappointed with today because we took a great start, managed to pass Bearman and managed to pass Russell,” he said.
“Both occasions I’m losing the position in the straights, which would have put us in a much better track position for the rest of the race.”
He felt he had more speed than he could show. “Managed to dive twice in the inside of Hadjar, but every time in the straight to Turn 4 then he gets past me very easily, so I feel like I had quite a lot more pace. Just not really able to fully show it.”
Still, he appreciated getting on the scoreboard again. “At the end it’s one point and I’m definitely not going to complain about it, because I would have taken it every single day since three months.”
A525 Shows Stronger Balance and Behaviour
Gasly highlighted that the A525 finally responded the way he wanted.
“I was able to drive in a way that I want,” he said. “The car was responding to what I expect the car to do, and we had a lot more potential.”
He also pointed to encouraging qualifying speed. “In quali yesterday, to be less than five tenths from the McLaren, knowing the package we have, it just showed there was something. We were actually very competitive in the corners.”
Gasly believes the team must uncover why this performance appeared so suddenly.
“Most important from the weekend – obviously one point is not going to change my life, neither the life of the team, but I think it’s just important in the bigger picture to understand where that entire potential came from and where it was the last few weekends.”
Outlook for Las Vegas Remains Uncertain
Gasly refused to make predictions for the next round. “I have no idea. We have no idea why we’re fast here and we have no idea why we’re so slow in Mexico,” he said. “Last year I qualified third in Vegas. We’ll see. I will not put money on third for me in Vegas this year.”
He also noted how unpredictable performance has been across the grid. “Max was nowhere yesterday, today he was third. Usually we’re nowhere and [in Brazil] we were strong the whole weekend.”
Alpine will now analyse the Brazil GP data to understand this unexpected spike in form before heading to Las Vegas.
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