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Alpine's Team Principal, Steve Nielsen, believes the French outfit's battle for fifth place in Formula 1 with Racing Bulls will be a defining factor for their season.
After the first half of the season, their midfield rival, Racing Bulls, sits fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 66 points, while Alpine is sixth, trailing by 5 points. In the Hungarian Grand Prix, both Alpine drivers, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, failed to score points, whereas Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad secured a combined 5 points for the Italian team.
"We performed well in the first seven races. We had some luck a few times, but we were always in the points. We are in a war with Racing Bulls regarding car development. I keep hearing stories that some of the other teams – Aston Martin and Williams – will also bring upgrades, so we'll see. There's a very long way to go until the end of the season, and we won't take anything for granted," Nielsen stated, as quoted by the official Formula 1 website.
However, the concerning news for Alpine is that the Audi team also drastically improved its performance in Budapest, with both German manufacturer cars finishing ahead of Gasly and Colapinto at the Hungaroring.
With 11 races remaining in the season, the French team has already significantly surpassed its performance from last season, when they finished in a dismal tenth place with only 22 points from the same number of races.
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