How Alpine conquered F1 2021's battle of the 'A-team' midfielders

Heading into 2021, it was clear that there was going to be little to choose between the three ‘A’ teams: Aston Martin, AlphaTauri and Alpine. Despite not having the best car, it was the French outfit that prevailed with its well-balanced driver pairing making up the shortfall

Updated Dec 24, 2021, 1:42 PM

If Formula 1’s fight at the front of the field was incredibly tight and unpredictable at times in 2021, the midfield contest behind McLaren and Ferrari took things to a new level.

In a season when the COVID-triggered homologation rules helped to keep things close, it was clear that there was going to be little to choose between the three ‘A’ teams: Aston Martin, AlphaTauri and Alpine. And whereas the battles further up the order came down to car and engine characteristics, plus a little bit of development, the fight between this trio was decided by a wider multitude of factors that left things unpredictable to the end.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.