A busy weekend at Spa culminated with another point on the board for the team

The annual visit to the Belgian Grand Prix is always a poignant one. As we returned to the Ardennes forest for the first race of the double-header before the summer shutdown, the motor racing community once again came together on Thursday evening at Spa to remember two young drivers taken far too soon.

As a close friend of Anthoine Hubert, Pierre laid flowers at Raidillon in memory of his compatriot, as well as Dutch racer Dilano van ’t Hoff. Drivers, engineers, mechanics and team members from F1, F2 and F3 also gathered on the start/finish straight before the annual ‘Run for Anthoine’ lap of the track.

“I want to say a big thank you to everyone who showed up, it means a lot to the family of Anthoine and Dilano,” said Pierre. “It’s great to see our motorsport family come together, the drivers, engineers, mechanics, hospitality, and everyone who showed up. It’s always very special and there are a lot of emotions every year, so thank you again from the bottom of my heart.”

Football fever arrives at Spa

In the lead-up, and during the Belgian GP weekend, there was plenty of excitement surrounding the final stages of the FIFA World Cup. After Argentina progressed through to the semi-finals, Franco embraced his nation’s success by arriving in the paddock wearing Argentina shirts throughout the weekend, including the famous No.10 jersey. Pierre might have hoped it was in honour of him, but it was, of course, Lionel Messi’s!

Pierre also made a stylish arrival in the Alpine A390 GT, fresh from his outing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the previous weekend, where he had driven the A110 FUTURE up the famous hill climb with the Duke of Richmond alongside him.

Friday’s learnings

We chose to use the opening on-track practice session of the weekend to focus on set-up rather than chasing lap time. There was extensive cross-car testing of different components with the aim of collecting data, which left Pierre and Franco 15th and 17th respectively after the first hour of Free Practice 1.

With the morning session complete, our focus then moved towards the stopwatch in the afternoon’s Free Practice 2 and Franco managed a lap good enough for seventh on the soft tyre. On Pierre’s side of the garage, he would have been much higher up the table had his quickest lap not been deleted for exceeding track limits at the top of Eau Rouge/Raidillon.

Unfortunately, Pierre’s afternoon came to an abrupt end with an accident at the exit of the Les Fagnes — also known as the Piff-Paff chicane. A sudden snap of oversteer sent the rear of the car into the tyre barriers, causing significant damage. Thankfully, Pierre climbed out unhurt as the mechanics then set about repairing his car ahead of Saturday.

Academy update

It was another encouraging weekend for the Alpine Academy runners in FIA Formula 2. After qualifying third, Alexander Dunne finished fifth in Saturday’s reverse grid Sprint Race before adding fourth place in Sunday’s Feature Race.

Gabriele Mini also impressed on Sunday morning. Despite dropping to the back of the field following a first-corner incident at La Source, the Italian fought his way back through the field — helped by a timely Safety Car — to finish strongly in fifth and maintain second place in the championship standings. It’s a quick turnaround as the F2 runners follow the Formula 1 schedule and head straight to Hungary for one more weekend before the summer break.

Both cars advance to Q2

The team’s efforts to rebuild Pierre’s car paid off, as both drivers completed Free Practice 3 without issue, Franco finishing 13th, two places ahead of his team-mate.

Qualifying brought some encouragement as both Alpine drivers progressed into Q2, but there was frustration that at least one car didn’t advance into Q3. However, grid penalties for rivals ahead promoted Pierre to 10th and Franco to 11th on the starting grid, giving both drivers the chance to fight for points on Sunday.

Battling all race

Franco arrived in the paddock on race day once again proudly donning his football jersey with a banner featuring legendary Argentina players Maradona and Messi. But before he could cheer on his home nation, the race was on.

At the start, Franco made a superb getaway. As George Russell and Lewis Hamilton tangled at Les Combes, Franco skillfully avoided the chaos to gain three positions on the first lap and move into eighth before the Safety Car was deployed.

What followed was a gripping race-long battle, with Franco and Pierre racing each other closely while also chasing, and passing, Liam Lawson and Nico Hülkenberg.

Then came the move of the race. On lap 30, Franco used a combination of the slipstream and energy boost to slingshot alongside both Pierre and Lawson before completing a stunning double overtake along the Kemmel Straight. It immediately brought back memories of Mika Häkkinen’s famous pass on Michael Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta at the same spot back in 2000.

That decisive move ultimately secured tenth place and a world championship point for Franco. The timing of the VSC unfortunately worked against us, as we had already made our one and only pit stop and it allowed a couple of competitors to gain track position on us, but it was a positive end to the weekend to secure the point. Unfortunately for Franco, Argentina didn’t go on to achieve World Cup glory as they were beaten by Spain.

Flavio’s thoughts

Another point for the team means the battle for fifth in the Constructors’ Championship remains incredibly tight, with us now level on 61 points with Racing Bulls heading to Hungary, the final race before the summer break.

“We saw some good, fair, wheel to wheel racing throughout, especially from Pierre and Franco who also kept it clean and entertaining between themselves,” said Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore. “This time the result fell Franco’s way so well done to him. We know Hungary won’t see a complete turnaround in results or competitive order but we must continue our efforts off-track to find more performance post-summer break and give both drivers more tools to fight much higher up the grid than what we are currently.”