Alpine’s David Sanchez details how team are setting themselves up to be competitive ‘especially from 2026 onwards’

Alpine’s Executive Technical Director David Sanchez has detailed how the team are hoping to put themselves in a “competitive position” in 2025 and beyond as they look to continue improving on their car going forward.

The 2024 campaign began in disappointing fashion for the Enstone/Viry outfit, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly qualifying at the back of the field for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Their fortunes started to improve as the year progressed, and a number of top-10 finishes have put the squad in P8 of the constructors’ standings on 13 points. While Sanchez has acknowledged the positive changes that have happened, he also admitted that the team’s focus needs to be on how to build on and sustain this into the future.

“Lately we have managed to improve the car and improve our performance on track, but really the main question is how are we going to continue improving the team [and] the car so that we can be in a competitive position this year, next year, and especially from 2026 onwards,” Sanchez explained in an Alpine mid-season review.

sanchez alpine press.webp — Sanchez joined Alpine as their Executive Technical Director in May

“The focus in the team right now is having a very clear development plan and a very clear direction for the current and next year’s car, which will be a continuity. This is already ongoing, and we have some very good signs from aerodynamics and simulations.”

This process has involved the development of new facilities, which Sanchez hopes will enable the team to continue to develop and improve their car.

“Essentially, one of the big [points of] focus is looking inside the team, making sure we have all the necessary resources to keep producing [a] better and better car, which is why, if you go around the site, you see many areas that look like building sites,” the Frenchman added.

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 24: Pierre Gasly of France driving the (10) Alpine F1 A524 Renault — Sanchez hopes that Alpine's developing resources will ensure that "the cars can keep being improved more and more"

“We’re building quite a lot of rigs, a new simulator, and all this again to make sure as a team we have all the resource to materialise all the ideas of the engineers around, so that the cars can keep being improved more and more as we learn about them.”

Alongside the development of their technical resources, Alpine have also seen significant changes on the personnel side of the team, with Oliver Oakes joining as their new Team Principal in August after Bruno Famin stepped down from the role.

The outfit will also field a new line-up in 2025 as reserve driver Jack Doohan gears up to make his F1 debut, the Australian set to partner the incumbent Gasly.