Pierre Gasly lays out exactly where Alpine have to improve as "new items" arrive for Austria

The French driver described recent weeks as an "emotional rollercoaster" after Alpine continued its run of points finishes, but warned the team remains too far behind the leading four teams despite encouraging race pace in Spain.

“Barcelona brought its challenges, especially in Qualifying which is an area we must keep working on,” Gasly said. “The race was much better, the pace was good, but we are still too far off the top four teams and we must keep striving to close that gap down.”

Alpine arrives at Spielberg for a significant weekend as the home race of title partner BWT, whose branding features prominently on the A526. The Austrian circuit, one of the shortest laps on the calendar, is expected to place a premium on qualifying performance due to the small time gaps typically separating the field.

Gasly highlighted the challenge ahead: “Austria is a tough track with little rest at the wheel. It's high speed, lots of elevation changes, hard braking zones and quite short in duration which means you have to be faultless as any small mistake really punishes lap-time where fine margins count.”

Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen echoed Gasly's assessment, identifying qualifying as Alpine's primary weakness despite the team's ability to recover positions on race day.

“Clearly, Qualifying is an area where we need to improve,” Nielsen said. “That being said, even with cars out of place on the grid, we have recovered well on Sundays and been able to score points, which, ultimately, is what counts at each Grand Prix weekend.”

Nielsen revealed Alpine will continue developing the A526 as the season progresses: “We will bring new items to the car at some of the upcoming races as we continue our push to improve performance,” he said.

The team has shown encouraging race pace during the European leg of the season, with Nielsen saying Alpine now has a clearer understanding of its strengths and weaknesses after the opening rounds.

“Now we are well into this campaign we are beginning to see some patterns and trends up and down the field. On our side, we know where the strengths and weaknesses of our package are and the areas we need to focus on.”

Franco Colapinto also arrives in Austria encouraged by Alpine's recent progress after the team's latest double points finish in Barcelona.

“It was positive for the team to secure another double points finish in Barcelona last time out,” Colapinto said. “There is a very good feeling in the team now we are well underway in Europe and I'm looking forward to the next double-header starting this week in Spielberg.”

The Argentine expects qualifying to be decisive around the 4.3km Red Bull Ring: “It's the shortest lap time of the season which makes it feel relentless and because of this, one-lap pace has to be strong because the gaps will probably be smaller than on most circuits,” he said.

Colapinto will also visit BWT's headquarters in Mondsee before the race weekend, highlighting the importance of the Austrian company's water filtration technology.

Looking ahead to the team's next two home events for key stakeholders, Nielsen added: “We look forward to Austria this weekend, our home race for title partner BWT before we head to Silverstone for Enstone's home Grand Prix the following week.”

With Alpine continuing to score regularly but still searching for greater qualifying speed, Austria will provide another test of whether the team's planned upgrades can help close the gap to Formula 1's frontrunners.