A return to racing after the summer break, and two points on the board on F1’s last visit to Zandvoort

After the summer shutdown, the second half of the 2026 season resumed with a short trip to the Netherlands and a busy Sprint weekend. It was straight back into action as Pierre and Franco were reunited with the team on the North Sea coastline.

Time for an upgrade

Thanks to the hard work taking place around the clock at Enstone, we were able to fast-track a sizeable upgrade to the A526 for the Dutch GP. Although this was only available for Pierre’s side of the garage, the plan is to bring the updated parts to Monza in a fortnight for Franco’s car. The team back at base did an excellent job to prepare the parts for Zandvoort with the upgrade having originally been slated for the next event.

While there was only one Free Practice session before we went straight into Sprint Qualifying, the early indications were that the new components were working well. Across the whole car, there was a raft of changes, including a new floor design, re-profiled elements on the floor board, floor edge and diffuser. Other updates featured on the sidepods, rear corner, rear impact structure and rear wing.

The philosophy behind the changes was to improve airflow across the car to deliver increased aerodynamic loading and performance gains, resulting in better lap times. After Pierre finished P8 in FP1, he was pleased with the overall handling of the A526.

“The early signs of the upgrade package are positive and I’ve definitely felt good in the car across both sessions today,” said Pierre on Friday. “It feels much stronger, there is more grip, and the car is reacting well to what I want. We will work hard to continue improving our level of understanding in making the overall package better.”

Sprinting into action

As ever with a Sprint weekend, with little time to digest the morning practice, it was straight into a competitive session to set the grid for the Saturday Sprint. And once again, it looked as if the performance improvements were working. Pierre made his first top-ten Qualifying appearance since Monaco, six races ago.

He qualified for the Sprint in P8, while Franco, still running the older specification, also ran well to deliver a lap good enough for P13. With dark clouds swirling around the North Sea coastline, the Sprint took place in the dry — although a downpour on the cool-down lap after the chequered flag could have caused mayhem for the entire field.

With his father watching from the garage and keeping his fingers crossed, Pierre did a fine job of staving off Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi to maintain eighth place and cross the line after 24 laps in P8 and with the crucial final world championship point.

Meanwhile, Franco advanced one place from his starting position to finish 12th, passing Yuki Tsunoda at the start, with learnings to apply to the car for Qualifying later in the day.

A big thanks to the Dutch fans

After six visits to Zandvoort in the modern era, this past weekend marked our final trip to the iconic Dutch circuit. The team has fond memories of the venue during its latest stint on the calendar with the highlight being Pierre’s excellent podium finish in 2023, his first with Alpine. He was able to master challenging wet and dry conditions to celebrate a well-deserved trophy in front of the legendary fans.

The visit to the Fan Forum on Saturday was a great opportunity to thank the ‘Oranje Army’ who have given this race such an electric atmosphere over the last five years.

And of course, it’s always special to see the support for Pierre and Franco, as we could see Argentinian and French flags flying above the sea of orange!

Following the Fan Forum and the Sprint, there was no rest for both drivers as they prepared for Qualifying. After completing a balance run for both cars in Q1, they delivered representative times to comfortably progress to Q2.

But the second part of qualifying proved to be a tougher test, with Franco setting the 14th-quickest time — after his final lap was hampered by traffic — Pierre too couldn’t manage to progress to Q3. With the margins in the midfield so tight, and the times close thanks to the short Zandvoort lap, he just missed out on advancing by 0.091 seconds.

Success on home soil

A year on from her debut win in F1 Academy, Nina Gademan came into this weekend with high hopes of another strong result — and so it proved across the two races.

After going fastest in practice, the Dutch racer started in P4 for the Reverse Grid race on Saturday and made a great start to move up a place into Turn 1. A strong opening lap meant she was challenging for second and made a brave move around the outside of Tarzan at the start of lap 2.

After a second Safety Car late in the race, she unfortunately lost a position, but still came home third and enjoyed the celebrations on her home race podium.

On Sunday morning, Nina started the second race of the weekend in P5 and once again made a brilliant start to take two places off the line. She maintained strong pace throughout the 17-lap encounter to hold on to third and secure her second podium of the weekend.

Nina scored a total of 21 points at her home race to cement her third place in the standings, on 71 points, ahead of the final two events in Austin and Las Vegas later in the year.

A frantic finale

The final F1 race to be held in Zandvoort was a fraught affair, thanks in part to a rain shower that hit the circuit in the dunes 45 minutes before the race was due to start.

The race start took place on a drying track with the entire field on slick tyres and no sooner had it got underway than a red flag was out following Max Verstappen’s accident on the banking on the opening lap. With the Audi of Bortoleto also spinning on the damp surface, the incidents ultimately led to a yellow-flag infringement for Franco as the field slowed to avoid the debris, and he was given a drive through penalty.

Before the final-corner incident, Franco had made a great start, passing four cars on the opening lap, but thereafter his race was compromised and he crossed the line in P14, where he started.

Watched on from our garage by Australian cricket all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, Pierre managed to avoid the mayhem on the opening lap to take the restart in ninth and was soon running in eighth. But with tyre degradation pushing the strategy to a two-stop race, the midfield battle was particularly intense as cars with different tyre ages battled through the field.

Pierre pitted on laps 18 and 46 but was under pressure from the Racing Bulls duo, our closest rivals in the championship. Despite their best intentions to thwart Pierre’s progress, he managed to come home tenth and secure another point for the team, passing Tsunoda on track, as we closed the gap to Racing Bulls to just three points in the fight for fifth in the standings.

After a difficult race, we’re encouraged by the upgrade and aim for further improvements with the package on both cars next time out at Monza.