Pierre Gasly: Right now I have the best car of my career.

      In 2026, Pierre Gasly earned points in the first three races of the season for the first time in his career. In Japan, the French driver finished seventh, holding off Max Verstappen. After such a result, Pierre called the Alpine A526 the best car of his career.

      Pierre Gasly: "The race in Japan was long and with serious pressure. In the early laps, I felt quite comfortable on the Medium tires, and I knew that sooner or later the safety car would come out because it keeps coming out this year.

      The second half of the race was completely different. Max was putting serious pressure on me, and I had to push hard to go as fast as possible and avoid mistakes. He managed to stay close, and with the Hard tires, his car was working better. But I was able to hold him off and finish seventh.

      I believe that at this moment I have the best car of my entire career alongside the AlphaTauri from 2021. We have a great foundation, and I am quite satisfied with the car's performance in the first weekends of the season. We managed to extract everything from it.

      The team knows what limitations we still have and which areas we need to continue working on. We have a whole month ahead for that, and we are working with an eye on the Miami race. If we continue to move forward at this pace, I hope we can catch up with the leading group of teams."