Alpine ended the 2025 Formula 1 season nailed to the bottom of the standings. Dead last. No debate.
And yet, bizarrely, it stands as the best “worst” team the sport has ever seen.
Never before has an F1 team finished last while scoring so many points. Alpine still trailed Sauber by a crushing 48 points, but historically speaking, this was as strong as failure has ever looked.
Yes, the Alpine was on average the slowest car on the grid. But it was far from hopeless. The qualifying numbers tell a different story.
Pierre Gasly dragged the car into Q3 on 11 occasions, meaning Alpine reached the final qualifying segment at nearly half the races. Its single-lap pace deficit — just under 1.4% — was the smallest ever recorded this century for the slowest car in F1.
That says a lot about modern Formula 1. Cost caps, tighter rules, and restricted aero testing have compressed the field like never before. Even the worst team is now impressively competent.
Still, Alpine managed another unwanted first: it mathematically secured last place before the final race of the season. No late miracle. No freak result. Even a hypothetical 1-2 finish in Abu Dhabi wouldn’t have saved it.
In one of the closest seasons in years, with a ferociously competitive midfield, Alpine simply didn’t have the machinery to fight over a full race distance.
Gasly scored all 22 of the team’s points, collected across just six race weekends. That’s barely a third of its 2024 haul and a shadow of the 2022 season, when Alpine finished fourth overall. The fall has been brutal — and fast.
The reasons are clear. An early switch of focus to the 2026 regulations left deep-rooted car problems unresolved. Rivals progressed faster than expected. Alpine stood still.
The result? A historic low for Renault. For the first time ever, its works team finished last in the championship.
Even during its bleak 2016 return, Renault still beat two other teams. This time, there was no one beneath it.
What makes this collapse sting even more is the recent past. Just three years ago, Alpine beat McLaren on merit. Today, McLaren wins championships while Alpine scrapes the bottom. Few examples better illustrate missed opportunity and catastrophic management.
Flavio Briatore’s controversial return may symbolize the downfall, but the rot runs deeper — from chaotic leadership to disastrous long-term decisions.
Now, Alpine pins its hopes on 2026, Mercedes power, and a bold promise of podiums. Optimism is easy. Reality is not.
From best of the rest to absolute last in just three years, Alpine’s works-team era ends not with a fight — but with a thud.
The gamble has been made. The engine program is gone. The reset is coming.
And surely, one hopes… it can’t possibly get any worse.
