Japan was a successful weekend as we secured our third consecutive points finish of the season. With Pierre scoring another top ten result, here’s our look back on a memorable Suzuka.

The art of racing

After spending some of his early career competing in Japan, Pierre has often spoken of his love for the country, the people and its culture, and took the opportunity to spend some time sightseeing in Tokyo before travelling to Suzuka. During his visit to the capital, he revealed an artistic, Japanese-themed helmet for the weekend.

This year’s lid was inspired by kintsugi — the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Embracing imperfection, this technique highlights the cracks rather than hiding them, to symbolise resilience, healing and beauty through adversity.

While he was in Tokyo, he also surprised a couple of fans with a special gift…

The golden ticket

Last year, an exclusive Golden Ticket competition gave two BWT Alpine Formula One Team fans the opportunity to win the trip of a lifetime to a Grand Prix of their choice. After choosing Japan, Federico and Kelsey flew to Tokyo, where Pierre surprised them at lunch, brought them behind the scenes at the F1 Fan Forum at Tokyo Tower and presented them with passes to this year’s race.

It was a memorable weekend for the couple, who had the opportunity to spend time with the team trackside and meet, among others, Pierre, Franco, Reserve Driver Paul Aron and Managing Director Steve Nielsen. As an Argentinian F1 fan, Federico was especially thrilled to meet Franco, while the highlight for the pair was watching qualifying from the Alpine garage.

“It will be difficult to go back to just watching F1 on TV,” said the lucky competition winners. “This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Suzuka in bloom

For the photographers trackside, Suzuka offers some unique perspectives, not only with its crossover point, but also the pink cherry blossom that matched the livery of our A526. Our photographer captured the sights that help make Suzuka special while the drivers took to the track for practice.

Franco left the pits first on Friday and, between them, he and Pierre completed just over 100 laps. But after struggling with the balance, especially in the high-speed corners, a lot of work went into improving the car for Saturday with a push from our simulator team in Enstone.

After arriving at the track on Saturday in a stunning Alpine A110 R, qualifying day proved to be stronger for Pierre, who was happier with the improvements made overnight and into FP3. He made Q3 to secure seventh on the grid for the third consecutive qualifying session (including the Sprint in China). Franco found the car more difficult on low fuel, but was much happier on a full tank, so had reason to be optimistic for Sunday, despite starting P15.

Eat, sleep, race, repeat

Off the line, Pierre held seventh place on the opening lap and was running comfortably behind the leading pack in the opening stages of the race. Further back, Franco had made up two places by lap three, shortly before his first stint on the Medium tyres came to an end.

Franco pitted on lap 17 for new Hards, before a Safety Car a few laps later after an incident involving Oliver Bearman at Spoon, which happened right in front of him.

“I was racing with him [Bearman] for a few laps and suddenly saw him slide in front of me across the grass into Spoon. Having viewed the footage afterwards, there was a big speed difference, which can be a characteristic of these cars, and I’m really glad he’s ok,” Franco said after the race.

After building a comfortable gap to Max Verstappen, Pierre pitted under the Safety Car and retained seventh place, but now had the four-time world champion’s Red Bull on his tail. For 25 laps he brilliantly held on despite immense pressure from behind. Four laps from the flag, Verstappen overtook Pierre under braking for the chicane, but Pierre was able to retake the Red Bull on the start/finish straight, eliciting a cheeky wave from Verstappen as he reclaimed the position.

It was a well-deserved P7, as he crossed the line just 0.337s ahead of Max, to give the team another six points — taking us to 16 in total and fifth overall in the Constructors’ standings. Franco’s first visit to Suzuka netted him a P16 finish at the flag. Pierre, for the first time in his Formula One career, has scored at the opening three races and joins the top four in the championship (Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton) as the only five drivers to have scored in each Grand Prix so far.

Another points finish

“That was a really intense race throughout and I am very happy with P7 and to score more points for the team,” said Pierre. “During the first part of the race we were building a nice gap to the cars behind. Then, after the Safety Car, we had to defend from Max, who put on a lot of pressure, so I am glad we could hold onto the position and secure some solid points.”

Before jetting out of Suzuka and back to the UK, Steve had time to reflect on the weekend: “Fantastic result for the team and a really strong drive by Pierre, who didn’t put a foot wrong, even though Max tried a number of tricks to pass him into the chicane,” said Steve. “Franco lost out with the Safety Car and didn’t manage to score any points. We go into the break now, and have a few upgrades planned for Miami, so are looking forward to that race.”

After three frantic opening races of the year, in addition to the shakedown and two official pre-season tests, it’s been a busy start to the season. The race team will now head back to Enstone to continue the hard work ahead of our first visit of the season to the United States in May.