Why Alpine dealing F1's midfield a three-way sucker-punch vindicates 2024's upheaval

There was something in the water in Brazil, aside from 20 Formula 1 drivers struggling to coax their cars around a sodden Interlagos circuit. Instead, there was a river of hope, of fortune; the teams out with the traditional front-running pack knew that a colossal pay-day was in the offing if they could simply keep their cars on the rapidly shrinking island.

Under the worsening conditions, the Alpine squad stayed afloat, and thus enjoyed a seismic turnaround in fortunes in the 2024 constructors' championship. Net result: the Enstone outfit collected a double-podium, a bucket-full of points, and sixth in the teams' standings.

Alpine had accrued just 14 points from the opening 20 rounds. The team's overweight A524 chassis effectively planted Renault's works team to the back of the field at the start of the year, even behind the yet-to-score Sauber.

As it started to shed the pounds, Alpine started to leave Sauber behind, but its upgrade path was still out of step with the other midfield teams. RB and Haas had cleared off into their own battle for sixth in the championship, leaving Alpine to do battle with Williams - another team that struggled with an overweight car at the start of the year.

Williams had threatened to pull away, thanks to the efficacy of its Zandvoort update. Alex Albon led the line, but now much more closely accosted by new team-mate Franco Colapinto; the Argentine had replaced the down-and-out Logan Sargeant and immediately made an impression in his first few races for the Grove squad. Alpine was at threat of being dropped by Williams in the constructors' standings too. Yet Alpine remained in touch, simply because Williams was unable to take its chances.

From the Brazil weekend, Alpine picked up 35 points thanks to the 2-3 result secured by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. This catapulted the team from ninth to sixth in the championship, a position it had perhaps considered too lofty after Mexico. But hope springs eternal.

Alpine's biggest points haul of the season has fired it above RB and Haas into sixth with three rounds to go

Photo by: Alpine

It was not only a sucker punch to Williams, but also to Haas and RB; there's now a non-zero chance that neither team will complete their goal of reaching sixth in the constructors' championship. For Alpine, there's a golden opportunity to complete a $30 million-$40 million swing in prize funds if it can remain ensconced in the battle over the final three races.

To the more cynical eye, Alpine's result might look like a complete fluke. Sure, the deluge helped mask the A524's greatest deficiencies, particularly the down-on-power Renault V6 turbo-hybrid in the back and a sprinkling of missing downforce from the underbody. But there have been improvements in the latter sphere, as a new box of upgrades arrived in time for the United States GP to inject more performance into the underbody.

That's an aspect that has given Gasly a bit more confidence in qualifying, underlined by his recent results in dry conditions: seventh on the grid at Austin, eighth in Mexico, and seventh in Brazil's sprint qualifying session. He's making the most of the improvements. Ocon hasn't quite gelled with them to the same extent, but the taller of the two Normandy natives was supremely impressive in wet qualifying at Brazil and never once strayed from the top seven in each of the three segments.

Versus some of Alpine's previous leaders, Oakes presents a much more genial figure. He's been in the job for a few months now, but his countenance remains influenced by an internal sense of wonder

This is the culmination of what appeared to be, on the face of it, another season of gratuitous upheaval behind the scenes. This was set off by the ungainly emergence of the A524 from its box, which prompted the resignations of technical director Matt Harman and chief aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer.

Former Peugeot Sport chief Bruno Famin, who had been upgraded from interim team principal to the full-time figurehead, had to steady the ship - but hadn't banked on the already tempestuous relationship between Gasly and Ocon flaring up on a few more occasions over the first half of the year.

Their clash at Monaco's Portier corner, which took Ocon out of the race and very nearly nixed Gasly's eventual run to 10th, was the final straw. Furthermore, the Renault Group was looking for a way to kill off its 2026 powertrain project, which led to strikes and protests at Viry-Chatillon from the disenfranchised workforce over the Monza weekend.

Contextualised by last year's shuffling of the management deck when CEO Laurent Rossi was let go a few weeks after accusing the team of being 'amateurish', followed by the later sackings of Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane during the Spa weekend, morale at Enstone took a downturn.

Famin was shuffled out of the team principal position, ushering in Alpine's latest new era under Oakes, after a tough start to 2024

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo decided to go for broke and brought in Flavio Briatore as an adviser, while Famin stepped down to focus on the rest of the racing operations. Hitech's Oliver Oakes came in as the new team principal, while David Sanchez had been on board for a few weeks as executive technical director after the most fleeting of stints at McLaren.

De Meo and Briatore seemed to come to the conclusion that Alpine needed someone who was going to lead from the front, and who was going to be a consistent presence with the Enstone workforce. Oakes joked that Briatore picked him because he lived locally - at least, we think it was a joke - and vowed to help the team rekindle its spirit after a bruising few seasons treading water in F1's midfield.

Versus some of Alpine's previous leaders, Oakes presents a much more genial figure. He's been in the job for a few months now, but his countenance remains influenced by an internal sense of wonder that he, an ex-Red Bull junior driver-turned-team owner, is now leading an F1 team. Behind the occasional self-deprecating remarks, he has a very clear self-imposed remit: to get the Enstone personnel working with smiles on their faces.

"It is a really big result today. You've got to enjoy the moment, but also be humble, because there's still quite a few races left, isn't there?," Oakes suggested post-race. "I think more for the team as a whole, [at the] beginning of the season, they've got a lot of mud slung at them, I guess you could say, or a bit of stick. And I think you can see how much it means to them.

"I was trying to count earlier how many weeks I've been here. I think it's 15, 15-16, weeks? And obviously, when you arrive like I did just before shutdown, I think they'd had just got points in Spa, if I'm right, and then Zandvoort was also more points. And that was a good race. But then those last three races where it was tricky.

"Those sort of races beyond that, where we had some I would say tough weekends, where we really saw some things that are hurting us at the moment. It was quite nice, I dare say, getting to Austin and seeing some performances. And now we have to feel confident the remaining races, but also humble that it's really competitive in that midfield. You can see that every time you go on track.

"But there's something special about Enstone isn't there? And Viry. You can see it today. It means a lot to all of them, it's all the same people. I think sometimes racing is like that as well. They just need to work together, little bit of wind in the sails, a bit of stability."

Oakes cuts a more upbeat figure than his predecessors in the Alpine team principal role

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

The other surprise footnote to Alpine's big day in the rain was the inexplicable good will between Ocon and Gasly. There was no animosity after Brazil; after all, this was the first time they had shared a podium in F1, and both rolled back the years to their karting days. They recounted their duels in northern France amid poor weather, a simpler time before their relationship became more complex.

Good results ultimately bring harmony, and the double-podium in Brazil seemed to wash away the lingering bad taste at Alpine. But there's still a job for the Anglo-French squad to do, and it must at least ensure it outscores both Haas and RB in the Las Vegas-Qatar-Abu Dhabi triple finale to keep hold of sixth. Although the A524 is much improved, Haas has the current form in dry weather and RB has looked stronger since Liam Lawson returned to the fold in place of Daniel Ricciardo.

Only one team will get to experience the joy of sixth. Even in a cost-cap era, every constructors' championship position remains lucrative - expect a fierce battle between the midfield three, one that won't relent until the chequered flag flies under the Abu Dhabi lights.

Can Alpine remain in the fight over the last three weekends of the season?

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images