After poor qualifying sessions for Tsunoda and the Mercedes duo, Monaco was an opportunity for midfield teams to capitalise and score major points. Unfortunately for Alpine, they were not in a position to do this.
VCARB capitalised on a strong Saturday and executed a highly aggressive strategy to claim P6 and P8.
Williams used a similar approach to take another double-points finish, whilst Esteban Ocon converted his qualifying into another significant haul for Ayao Komatsu’s team.
As rivals fought for the top 10, Alpine could only watch from the back of the field.
In what has already been a difficult campaign for the Enstone team, Monte Carlo was another reminder of the journey they face.
Alpine lose out to rivals in Monaco
For most of the year, Alpine’s driver line-up is what has dominated the discourse surrounding the team.
The decision to replace Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto after just six rounds is one of the biggest developments in F1 this year.
Colapinto’s incident in his first race back at Imola, for obvious reasons, was under the microscope of media outlets and fans alike.
Despite this focus on the French squad’s drivers, this has not been the limiting factor for their results in 2025.
Alpine only have seven points in the constructors standings, putting them in 9th place – only one point in front of Sauber.
Whilst the A525 has shown flashes of pace, other midfield outfits have demonstrated better performance and operational efficiency.
With VCARB, Haas and Williams all scoring points in Monaco, Alpine’s deficit has only increased.
Assuming that Aston Martin stop missing out on golden opportunities for points, Alpine’s chances of climbing the field will become even lesser.
Briatore reflects on Alpine’s race
When Briatore was appointed as executive advisor last year, it became clear he would be influential in the team’s direction.
With Oliver Oakes no longer team principal, the Italian’s position of authority at Enstone has been further cemented.
It is his responsibility to move the team forward and, based on his own targets, start challenging for Championships in the next few years.
Alpine are obviously far from this objective, though their switch to Mercedes engines for 2026 could offer them a boost.
Regardless, when focusing on this season, the new technical directive at the Spanish GP could be their last chance to improve relative to their rivals.
“It was always going to be an uphill task given our starting positions,” said Briatore.
“With Pierre, we wanted to try something different by pitting early and seeing what opportunities might come to us.
“Then he had an incident with Tsunoda and that was the end of Pierre’s race.
“As we saw, other teams played games with some interesting takes on strategy.
“Franco did a good job, made no mistakes, had good pace with what he could do in traffic. And I am sure many learnings for him and a boost in confidence.
“Fundamentally, we are not fast enough.
“We will see in Spain at a more complete track with some intrigue around new wings. We will see how we fare.”
Main photo: Peter Fox/LAT Images (via Alpine media gallery)
