DECEMBER 3, 2025

Alpine next team to reveal 2026 launch date

Alpine has become the fourth team to confirm its 2026 car launch date, announcing a January 23 unveiling in Barcelona - just days after Red Bull and Racing Bulls present their liveries at Ford's January 15 event, and ahead of Aston Martin's February 9 reveal.

The team also arrives in Abu Dhabi for a symbolic weekend - the final race for a Renault-built Formula 1 power unit.

Alpine released images from Viry showing staff signing the last V6 produced at the factory, bound for the 2025 finale - with white marker messages covering the engine.

Sporting director Steve Nielsen said Enstone is already deep into Mercedes-powered 2026 car production, with the tightest winter turnaround he has ever seen.

Somebody told me yesterday that from the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi to the first time our car goes on the track is 36 days, and that includes the compulsory winter shutdown, he said.

Work that would normally have taken place over two or three months has been compressed into literally four weeks. Enstone is completely on 2026 and has been for some time.

Franco Colapinto, who struggled badly in Qatar and has generally failed to impress since replacing Jack Doohan, believes a proper pre-season will help him reset for next year.

But Nielsen cautioned that the 2026 testing picture remains unclear.

Franco is early in his career - it's learning. But specifically to identify what issues we may have in preseason 2026, I don't know the answer yet. I'm not sure anybody does, he said.

With no dedicated test teams in modern Formula 1, the race crews will handle the January running at Barcelona - despite the 24-race season only ending this weekend.

We've been looking at staff rotation months out, said Nielsen. "We're building next year's car in December. I've never known that before.

It's a completely different way of looking at it.

(GMM)