(Motorsport-Total.com) – In the battle for the top of the midfield, the Racing Bulls have gained competition again in 2026: Alpine has overcome its weak phase from 2025 and has so far pushed itself to fifth place in the World Championship – two places ahead of the Young Bulls. With 16 points, they have scored only six points less after three races than in the entire previous season.
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But for Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane, the leap of the French is not unexpected: “Honestly, I don’t think Alpine is a surprise,” he says in a media round. “We knew they would switch to the Mercedes power unit, so we felt they would be very decent in this form.”
An important factor for him is that Alpine basically wrote off the previous year: “We believe they did not develop their car at all last year. They accepted that they would be last last year and thus put all their available time into the 2026 car.”
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Different are the Racing Bulls, who had a close fight and ended up only three points ahead of Aston Martin in sixth place in the championship. “I think we are currently paying a bit of a price with our performance compared to our direct competitors,” says Permane.
“We developed our car well into last year, so we expected to be a bit behind at the start.”
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Nevertheless, Alpine has done “a very decent job” with its new car, he says. “And they are very fast. We saw that with Pierre [Gasly], who kept Max [Verstappen] in check for almost the entire race in Suzuka. So their car is definitely fast.”
But while Alpine is no surprise for the Englishman, other teams are – but rather negatively: “Williams is a small surprise, Aston Martin as well,” says Permane.
“But I think in the fight we are in, there are no surprises. We just have to look at ourselves, keep our heads down and keep going – so keep bringing upgrades to the car.”
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