Alpine’s 2026 F1 form no surprise to Racing Bulls

Racing Bulls’ performance, meanwhile, has been mixed; in qualifying it was fifth-fastest in Melbourne, eighth-fastest at Shanghai and seventh-fastest at Suzuka. Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad have still managed to collect a combined 14 points, but the team would hope for more.

“I think we are paying the price a little bit with our performance against the people we're racing,” Permane said. “So certainly Alpine, who abandoned last season, I'm not surprised to see them where they are. We developed our car late into the year, so we expected to start a little bit on the back foot.

“I think what we need is more of what we've got. The car works well, it doesn't seem to have any particularly nasty traits about it. We just need more load, which is what we're bringing. Generally, it seems to be similar to last year's car that seemed to work pretty well in most places.

“I think we understand why it worked better in Melbourne than the other two races. It should work well in the next coming ones. Having said that, Montreal was a race last year where we certainly struggled. It definitely wasn't one of our more competitive races. Again, we think we know why that was and we've done some work to make sure we don't repeat those mistakes again.”

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, at the 2025 Canadian GP

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, at the 2025 Canadian GP

After April’s Middle Eastern rounds were cancelled due to the Iran war, Racing Bulls is bringing major upgrades to the upcoming events in Miami and Montreal, with the latter upgrade scheduled to replace the former; the development plan will be complemented by smaller updates.

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“I expect that what we've got coming soon, what I know we've got in the pipeline, will lift us certainly a little bit more into that midfield battle,” Permane said. “Whereas at the moment, we're more to the middle, to the back of it.

“I'm very confident that we can keep up, if not do better than the other midfield teams. As I said, I think we are starting from a little bit further back than some of them. I think we can do a very good job. We already had a good step from Bahrain [pre-season testing] to Melbourne. As I say, we've got another good step coming the next race and then another good step from Montreal. There'll be small steps almost every race, I would say. Then we've got another two or three large upgrades already planned. And you can't really see beyond that.

“So, up to the [August] shutdown, we've got a plan. So I'm very confident that we can stay with that group – we're kind of in a group of four, which is Alpine, Haas and Audi.

“To make inroads to the top guys, I'm not sure that's going to be so easy. Of course, we will do our best and we will try. We will do everything we can. They're a bit of a step away, certainly fighting for podiums. It looks like it would be tough this year, but let's see what we can do. We'll just work as hard as we can. But as I say, I'm confident we can stay with or even increase our competitiveness in the midfield.”

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