McLaren Overtakes Alpine in the Constructors Championship After Chaotic Singapore GP

While the battle up top has been rather bland, the mid-field has been spectacular from the start of the season. In the early days, Haas was fighting with Mercedes for track position, and Alfa Romeo looked promising.

Since then, those teams have settled down to positions more similar to where they were in the previous years. However, the exact opposite is true for McLaren, who initially struggled heavily but managed to claw their way back to the top of the mid-field.

With a huge lack of downforce and Ricciardo looking severely out of tune with the car, fans were quick to discard them. However, while the historical British team was fighting for scraps, Alpine constantly delivered solid results. Their 4th place in the Constructor’s Championship looked all but set.

However, McLaren kept their head down and kept pushing race after race. This brings us to the Singapore GP, where they were 18 points behind Alpine. Hopes were not high, with the French team having brought upgrades for the race and looking rather quick in qualifying. But the big equalizer came in the shape of heavy rain that delayed the start of the Grand Prix.

With intermediate tires on, the race started like any other, at least until the light crashes and DNFs began due to the tricky conditions. Those and two safety car periods allowed Ricciardo to climb up through the order. Still, the Aussie made a good race. He kept his nose clean and did what he had to secure a good haul of points for the team.

In all the chaos, with some help from Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen making driving errors and falling down the order, Lando Norris also managed to sneak a great fourth place. The Brit made little to no mistakes and even defended fiercely from the reigning World Champion.

But what really made the difference is the fact that the engines of both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon failed in the humid heat of the Singapore GP. This left Alpine looking at a double DNF and a grand total of 0 points from a race where Alonso was looking very strong. To add insult to injury, the two McLarens finished just outside of the podium positions, in fourth and fifth, bringing home a total of 22 points. This means they knocked Alpine down to fifth place in the Constructor’s Championship by 4 points.