The Alpine A525 is one of the Alpine entries the open record knows by name, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable. David Sanchez / Joe Burnell / Ciaron Pilbeam / David Wheater / Simon Virrill / Jacopo Fantoni / Benjamin Norton / Richard Frith / Vin Dhanani / Michael Broadhurst / Eric Meignan drew it.
The background
The Alpine A525 is a Formula One racing car designed and developed by the Alpine F1 Team for competition in the 2025 Formula One World Championship. It is the fifth Formula One car entered by Alpine since rebranding from Renault. The A525 was driven by Pierre Gasly, who was on his third season with the team, and a "rotating seat" that consisted of rookie driver Jack Doohan, who raced with the team from Australia to the Miami Grand Prix, and Franco Colapinto, who replaced Doohan starting from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for the remainder of the season. Paul Aron, Ryō Hirakawa, and Kush Maini all assumed reserve driver roles, with Colapinto previously holding such a role before being swapped with Doohan.
The car was revealed at a bespoke event on 18 February 2025, and made its competitive debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. The A525 is the first Alpine Formula One car to utilise Eni fuels and lubricants; their previous suppliers, BP and Castrol, are set to supply fuels and lubricants, respectively, to the Audi Formula One team from the 2026 season onwards. It will also be the last Alpine car and last F1 car overall for the foreseeable future to utilise Renault engines as Renault has chosen to cease its engine development and supply programme at the end of 2025, with the Alpine team switching to Mercedes engines in 2026. The car's underperformance led to Alpine finishing last in the Constructors' Championship, the worst finish Team Enstone had achieved.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Alpine A524; its successor was the Alpine A526. Its Alpine stablemates include the Alpine A110 and the Alpine A110 (2017).