Haas finds itself on the back foot in Formula 1’s fiercely contested midfield battle after Alpine’s substantial Miami upgrade package cured a key weakness in the A526 chassis. The American squad, which sat fourth in the constructors’ championship after Japan, now trails the Anglo-French team by five points following a difficult weekend at its home race.
The swing in momentum came courtesy of Alpine’s aerodynamic overhaul in Miami, which addressed persistent high-speed corner struggles that had plagued Franco Colapinto and, to a lesser extent, Pierre Gasly through the opening rounds. By contrast, Haas arrived with a single small change to its diffuser winglet — leaving Oliver Bearman to rue the gap that opened up over the weekend.
They had an issue in high-speed, and then it looks like they’ve sorted that, and they’ve brought a huge amount of upgrades for this event. We brought zero, so we were anticipating a tough weekend – that turned out to be the case.
Alpine’s High-Speed Weakness Resolved
Alpine’s early-season form had been uneven. The A526 excelled in low-to-medium speed conditions — witness its strong showing in Shanghai, where tight corners and short straights suited the car’s characteristics. But in Melbourne and Suzuka, where sweeping high-speed sections demand front-end bite, the team struggled. Colapinto particularly found the car’s front axle reluctant to engage through faster corners, while Gasly adapted through setup tweaks and driving style.
Miami’s upgrade package changed that dynamic. Both Alpines made Q3, with Colapinto ahead of Gasly in all three qualifying sessions. The high-speed instability that had cost the team tenths per lap appeared resolved. Haas, meanwhile, was caught off guard by Alpine’s Q1 strategy — running just one set of tyres in the opening segment masked the true pace gap until Q2, when Bearman found himself half a second adrift of Gasly.
I think the true pace came out. It was good at the start of Q1, but actually we were on quite a different run plan with others. I felt like we’d actually caught up a bit of a gap to Alpine, for example. But they only did one set of tyres and they showed their true pace in Q2 – and we were not in the battle with them.
Haas Race Pace Also Compromised
Historically, the VF-26 has made up for qualifying deficits with stronger Sunday pace. Not in Miami. Bearman finished 36 seconds behind Colapinto, who took seventh for Alpine and added to Gasly’s sprint race point. The Haas driver believed he could have undercut Alex Albon for 10th had the pit stop execution been cleaner, running close to the Williams after the stops but lacking the pace to complete a pass.
Both Haas and Alpine struggled with tyre temperatures in Miami’s heat during Friday and Saturday running. Sunday’s overcast conditions helped mitigate that weakness, but by then Alpine had already demonstrated its new-found competitiveness. Bearman was left fighting with Williams’ upgraded FW48 rather than challenging the cars ahead.
Montreal Upgrade Package Offers Hope
Haas does have reasons for optimism. A larger collection of updates is expected for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, where cooler ambient temperatures should also favour the VF-26’s operating window. Unlike Alpine’s smoking-gun high-speed issue, Haas doesn’t have a single glaring weakness to address — the car simply needs more overall downforce, with the team estimating it’s three to four tenths shy of regular Q3 pace.
The midfield battle remains fluid. Haas is contending not just with Alpine but also Williams, Racing Bulls, and Audi, all of whom are developing aggressively through the opening phase of the 2026 season. Alpine’s decision to cut short its troubled 2025 campaign and focus resources on this year’s car is looking increasingly justified as Gasly and Colapinto begin to extract consistent results.
The Canadian Grand Prix weekend begins with opening practice on 6 June, where Haas will look to reassert itself in the upper-midfield scrap and claw back the ground lost in Miami.