Racing Bulls closes on Alpine after Canada upgrade

Racing Bulls has moved to within one point of Alpine in the fight for fifth in the constructors’ championship, with a major underfloor upgrade introduced in Canada turning the team into Formula 1’s clear midfield benchmark.

Since Montreal, Racing Bulls has looked like the strongest team behind Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. After Silverstone, Alpine leads 60 points to 59, but the momentum has shifted sharply enough that Racing Bulls is now the favorite in that battle.

Arvid Lindblad said the breakthrough came from a fundamental change to the car underneath. The Racing Bulls driver said the Canada package was "a huge update" and that "the whole philosophy of the floor changed." He added that it is "clearly much better" and that "that is exactly why the car now works on practically every track."

Lindblad said the gain was about more than bolting on a single new part. He argued the team is still early in this rules cycle and that once the fundamentals are understood properly, the car can perform everywhere. He said Racing Bulls used the opening races to understand the weaknesses in its original concept, then "implemented it perfectly" in Canada.

That step has since been reinforced by a wider development sequence. Racing Bulls’ second major upgrade phase centered on new floor geometry in Canada, followed by a new diffuser in Barcelona, diffuser detail revisions in Austria and another geometry overhaul at Silverstone. The result has been consistent pace on very different types of circuit, including dominant midfield performances in Spielberg and Silverstone, where its cars finished more than 11 seconds and then more than seven seconds clear of the next midfield runner before a late safety car compressed the gap in Britain.

Alpine is not disputing where the advantage now lies. Pierre Gasly, Alpine driver, said Racing Bulls "has simply done a better job in recent weeks" and brought "more effective updates" to its car. Pointing to Silverstone qualifying, he said its pace was "huge" and noted that it was only two tenths off the fastest Red Bull.

Gasly also made clear Alpine does not expect an immediate turnaround. He said there would be no updates for Belgium and added, "That’s why we are not expecting a significantly different order." He admitted Alpine expects "a big challenge" just to fight Racing Bulls and said the team instead wants to use practice to better understand a package that "has not delivered the performance we had hoped for in recent weeks."

The speed of the swing was exactly what Alpine management had feared. Before Silverstone, managing director Steve Nielsen warned the team not to relax despite holding a 13-point advantage, saying one race with "a bit of disruption" could change everything. Racing Bulls then outscored Alpine across the sprint and grand prix to cut that margin to a single point, leaving Alpine’s grip on fifth under immediate threat.