Overview
- Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix ended with Lando Norris winning the race and Mercedes clinching the 2026 Constructors’ Championship.
- Franco Colapinto finished 13th and lost early ground after what he called the worst start of the year, dropping to about 18th before recovering to pass teammate Pierre Gasly late in the race.
- Colapinto radioed engineer Stuart Barlow that he had asked to pit earlier, saying “Stu, se los dije,” after a double‑stack pit sequence forced him to wait and cost track position.
- Alpine delayed a switch from intermediates to slicks and then returned to intermediates when rain resumed, a sequence the team and adviser Flavio Briatore cited as evidence they must fix wet‑condition grip and strategy.
- The result leaves Alpine scoreless in Brazil and puts pressure on the team to analyse telemetry and track‑side operations in the two weeks before the Las Vegas street race.