Alpine has put an unlucky streak behind it and moved into a tie with McLaren for fourth place in the Constructors' World Championship that promises to heat up Formula 1 in 2022
After fighting until the last race with Ferrari for third place in the Constructors' World Championship in 2021, McLaren has a new rival in 2022, this time for fourth place: Alpine. The British team started the season better, with excellent results in Australia and also in Imola. But, little by little, the French team has been taking the difference, which reached 24 points, and now, with half of the races completed, the two teams are tied with 81 points.
The feeling at the moment is that the fourth best car on the grid is the Alpine one. The French car shows itself to be competitive on different types of tracks, and the Renault engine, a problem in recent years, is at least on the same level as its rivals. The problem so far is reliability. Fernando Alonso dropped points along the way in Jeddah and Esteban Ocon recently abandoned the British GP.
The Prince of Asturias' bad luck streak hasn't helped either. The Spaniard has suffered from controversial punishments, touches on the track, such as that of Mick Schumacher at the Emilia-Romagna GP, and bizarre problems, such as the breaking of a two-euro part in qualifying in Australia that looked promising.
But now things seem to be on track for the French team. Alpine only failed to score in Imola, and is coming from three races in a row with at least 10 points. Alonso could have had an even better result than 10th place last Sunday (10) in Austria, were it not for tire vibrations that forced him to make an extra pit-stop.
"We stopped with the virtual safety-car and we were on track for a sixth place, because I was just behind Lando [Norris] with new tires doing 1min08s at the end, it would be easy to pass him. Maybe it would be possible to finish just behind Esteban, which would be amazing for the team, fifth and sixth, especially starting last. But I felt huge vibrations in the tires in the very first sector, so we decided to stop again. I came back 14th and managed to recover to 10th with nine laps to go," said Alonso.
While Alpine shows growth and excitement with recent improvements, McLaren will need to take advantage of small improvements and any glitches and bad luck from their rivals. Limited by the spending ceiling, the Woking team has already revealed that it does not intend to make any major improvements to the MCL36 and tries to maximize its time in the wind tunnel.
"I hope we have not been the only ones to pull the brake in terms of upgrades because of restrictions we are having, mainly because of the spending ceiling," said team boss Andreas Seidl. "But we also have restrictions currently with wind tunnel usage time, so you have to be careful how you go about using the wind tunnel," the manager concluded.
The start in Bahrain was alarming, but after getting to grips with the brakes McLaren excelled in Melbourne and had the third best car on the grid in Imole. The team would have scored even more had it not been for Daniel Ricciardo's mistake at the first corner, which also knocked Carlos Sainz out of the race.
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The Australian's performance has been a big problem as well. Ricciardo can't keep up with Lando Norris and doesn't justify the high salary he receives. The recent announcement of the hiring of Álex Palou, without specifying for which category, put even more pressure on the veteran, who felt the need to defend himself on social networks.
Daniel will be extremely important in the race for fourth place in the Constructors' World Championship, but it is very difficult to imagine a recovery for the Australian, who will only see the pressure increase. The weight of carrying the team falls on the shoulders of Lando, who rarely fails to get the most out of a car that does not seem to have great deficiencies or great virtues.
The equality in the points - McLaren is still ahead because it has a podium - does not reflect what has happened so far this year between McLaren and Alpine. With reliability problems diminishing and luck smiling, the French are close to regaining a fourth place that is their rightful place in the 2022 Formula 1 season. The scenario for the Woking team is more problematic, with no major upgrades planned and a veteran driver who no longer performs.