McLaren F1 Team vs Alpine F1 Team: Here’s Who We Think Will Be More Successful Long Term

They are, however, better than Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin, Haas and Williams. We know this not only because of the standings, but also the “eye test”. While AlphaTauri have looked impressive on some tracks this year (and the same goes for Alfa Romeo), they lack the resources available to McLaren and Alpine, not to mention the talent behind the wheel.

We’re nine races into the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship and Red Bull sits atop the Constructors Standings with 304 points, followed by Ferrari with 228 points, Mercedes-AMG with 188 points, and then McLaren and Alpine. The former with 65 points and the latter with 57.

Sure, you can make the case for Alfa Romeo being in the mix with 51 points amassed so far, but I’m willing to bet they’ll be trailing off the more we progress towards the second half of the season.

So then, P4 in the Constructors Standings will most likely come down to either McLaren or Alpine, but could we risk a guess as to which team will finish ahead of the other? Absolutely.

McLaren got off to a disastrous start in their F1 campaign this year, to the point where people were worried they might be nothing more than a backmarker all season. Thankfully for their fans, they bounced back, thanks mostly to Lando Norris, who’s an absolute stud behind the wheel. For all we know, he might be just as talented as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc and his results speak for themselves.

Norris is responsible for 50 of McLaren’s 65 points, but one might argue that with a more in-form Ricciardo, the British outfit would have been a lot closer to Mercedes-AMG in the standings than it is to Alpine.

Meanwhile, the French team is riding a bit of a renaissance at the moment, with both drivers finishing top 10 in the past two Grand Prix (Canada and Azerbaijan). Alonso even qualified on the front row, behind Max Verstappen, in Canada, but his race was impacted by a small engine issue.

Now, as for which of these two teams is more likely to fight for podiums in the long term – meaning both towards the end of this season and in upcoming seasons – I'm going to say Alpine. It wouldn’t surprise me if McLaren still finished the year ahead of the French outfit, simply because of how competitive Lando Norris looks.

However, let’s not forget that Alpine is a factory team not a customer team, which means more involvement with powertrain development, not to mention an overall bigger budget, although the budget cap should help balance things out – or shake things up, depending on perspective.

Ultimately, I see Alpine as a title contender. It could easily happen before the next set of regulations comes into effect (2026), or sometime after that. As for McLaren, they haven’t won a Drivers Title since 2008, while a Constructors Title has been eluding them since 1998. I like what they’re doing, but I like Alpine’s potential a little more.