Can Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto Challenge Racing Bulls for P5?

The Tight Fight for Fifth in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Standings

The intense midfield rivalry between Racing Bulls and Alpine has emerged as one of the defining narratives of the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship, with the Faenza-based squad currently seizing control of the battle for fifth position. Over the demanding triple-header spanning Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Singapore, Racing Bulls produced an impressive collective haul of 23 points. In stark contrast, Alpine failed to register a single point throughout the same period, allowing their Italian rivals to establish a formidable 32-point cushion heading into the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA).

The sudden divergence in momentum has proven particularly frustrating for the Enstone-based outfit. Alpine’s A526 chassis has demonstrated robust baseline speed at every circuit this season, regularly outpacing the Racing Bulls VCARB 03 in single-lap qualifying trim. However, this raw performance has repeatedly failed to translate into Sunday race results. The most glaring setback occurred in Azerbaijan, where teammates Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly collided, undermining what should have been a lucrative weekend. Racing Bulls also encountered intra-team drama when Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson made contact in the same race, yet the Faenza team continually maximized opportunities when it mattered most.

Assessing their ongoing campaign, Liam Lawson highlighted the team’s ability to capitalize on fluctuating fortunes: “There’s been quite a few races we haven’t really been as quick as them, but we’ve outscored them,” says the New Zealander. “Baku we got lucky, the team got lucky. And I feel like that outside of that, we’ve actually just done a really good job.”

Alpine Mounts Reset Strategy After Factory Investigations

Facing a significant deficit with just six rounds left in the championship, Alpine spent the gap following the Singapore Grand Prix working intensively back at their Enstone headquarters to diagnose the factors behind their recent collapse in race form. Managing tyre usage and translating competitive Saturday qualifying efforts into sustainable race stints remain the core objectives as the paddock travels to Austin.

Franco Colapinto emphasized the urgency of an immediate rebound while detailing the squad’s technical review: “It’s clear that we lost the last triple header, and we need to win this one,” says Colapinto. “We need a kind of stop, a reset, and a start from zero again. And it’s tricky in F1 when everything comes very fast, and you have one weekend to another to another, and then you are in the sim.”

The Argentine driver explained the efforts invested ahead of the final flyaway stretch: “We were a long time in the factory four days after the race in Singapore, trying to find some performance for the future and trying to understand the issues we’ve got.” He added: “I think in general again it’s not to overanalyse anything, we don’t need to go super into detail of every little bit, but generally it’s been a couple of tough weekends.”

Maintaining a balanced perspective on their race-day execution, Colapinto noted: “We mostly understand why. We also were not the luckiest, but you can clearly see it. So again, we’ll need a bit of luck this last part of the year, but I’m sure we can do a good end of the season.”

Addressing the disparity between one-lap pace and race distance performance, Colapinto argued that the gap is narrower than recent scoreboards suggest: “I feel like we’ve been competitive in general on Saturdays for sure,” he says. “On Sundays we’ve been strong as well. For the most part of the year, we were up there, and the races have been fighting for points. We look super strong.”

He continued: “It’s true that for me, Malaysia is tricky to say because of the weather, and the roughness of the track I think was something very specific. But then, in general Baku, Madrid, the hot races, we were in this very hot European season, and we were strong on Sundays. So I don’t think it’s something to be super concerned [about].”

Refining his appraisal of the A526’s operational window, Colapinto concluded: “I think we are normally stronger on Saturday than Sundays. That’s a reality. But it’s not that we are slow on Sundays. We are good, and we are looking to extract more pace of the car.”

Pierre Gasly Targets Historic Reversals Down the Stretch

Pierre Gasly maintained that Alpine’s current dry spell is not indicative of any systemic breakdown inside the garage, attributing the recent drought to a chain of operational misfortunes rather than an absence of car potential. Across the three most recent rounds, the French driver consistently progressed deep into the final qualifying segment, underscoring the baseline speed of the package.

“I think looking at Qualifying, we qualified in the Q3s in all three races, four including the Sprints,” says the Frenchman. “So the pace in quali has been good. In the race it was mixed bag of unlucky events – looking at the Baku race, in Sepang that was kind of like 50:50 with the starting tyre, and we got it wrong unfortunately, and Singapore, which I think unfortunately highlighted the main limitation of the car that we have in a race at the moment.”

Reflecting on the heavy championship hit, Gasly acknowledged: “So it was just all compacted in these three weeks, and obviously we’ve been very disappointed, because we had we lost a lot of ground to VCARB, and we expected quite a lot more points at the end of it.”

Despite the steep 32-point gap, Gasly points to Alpine’s dramatic 2024 outing at Autódromo José Carlos Pace—where a sodden Interlagos circuit allowed himself and then-teammate Esteban Ocon to finish third and second for a staggering 33-point windfall—as proof that mid-table fortunes can transform in an instant.

“I think personally, I just want to take it race-by-race,” he says. “It’s a big gap. At the same time, with that team I’ve seen back in 2024 we’ve had that amazing double podium in Brazil, and all of a sudden we had plenty of points scored.”

Reaffirming his commitment to the chase, Gasly stated: “So it’s never impossible. It’s a tough challenge, but I think we’ve just got to take one race at a time, trying to do the best job we can. And then we’ll do the maths at the end of the year.”

Why This Matters

Securing fifth position in the Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship carries substantial commercial and aerodynamic development ramifications. Under the sport’s financial regulations and prize-money distribution matrix, finishing fifth rather than sixth yields millions of dollars in additional revenue, while subtly altering the sliding scale for wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allocations.

For Racing Bulls, consolidating fifth place validates their operational resilience and strengthens their standing against factory-backed operations. For Alpine, recovering the lost ground represents critical validation of their technical direction after spending extensive simulator and factory hours addressing race-trim limitations ahead of the final flyaway sequence starting at COTA.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the current points gap between Racing Bulls and Alpine?

Racing Bulls lead Alpine by 32 points in the fight for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, having scored 23 points across the Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Singapore triple-header while Alpine scored zero.

How many races remain to settle the battle for fifth?

There are six rounds remaining in the 2026 World Championship, beginning with the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.

Why does Alpine believe closing the 32-point margin is still realistic?

Alpine points to their sustained qualifying pace—consistently reaching Q3 across recent grand prix and sprint sessions—and historical precedent, such as the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix where the team collected 33 points in a single wet afternoon.