F1.com's Lawrence Barretto runs through the candidates for which team could emerge as the leader of the midfield entering into 2026.
Alpine took a massive risk by turning off their 2025 development early, so they could divert all their time and resources to the 2026 project, in the hope that would yield an opportunity to leap up the pecking order.
Early indications suggest that gamble may well have paid off, but are they top of the midfield?
There was a quiet optimism on the terrace of the Alpine hospitality unit in Bahrain, which this year was positioned down the other end of the paddock courtesy of their last-place finish in the Teams' Championship in 2025 (they would have been right at the end had Cadillac not joined the fray as F1's new 11th member).
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