Alpine may have been a clear backmarker in the 2025 Formula 1 season while the world drivers’ title narrowly eluded Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but three rounds into the 2026 campaign, the two teams are neck and neck.

With Pierre Gasly beating Verstappen to seventh under the chequered flag in the Japanese Grand Prix, both teams have scored 16 points, but Alpine is ranked ahead on countback.

2026 F1 championship standings: Kimi Antonelli is the youngest leader

This is no coincidence, as both Red Bull drivers have openly been unhappy with the RB22’s performance and behaviour – and remain unsure how to even improve the situation.

After Isack Hadjar and Verstappen qualified respectively eighth and 11th at Suzuka, the Frenchman lamented “what we are seeing this weekend makes no sense”, while his elder branded the car “undriveable” and “all over the place”.

Hadjar failed to score points on Sunday after losing out in the safety car sequence – he branded the car “undriveable” to the point that it was “dangerous” – while Verstappen finished eighth, three tenths behind Gasly after a 26-lap battle.

“I think we were a tiny bit faster a lap, but you just can't pass – well you can pass, but then you have no battery the next straight,” the four-time world champion commented. “So, I tried one time just to have a look, so I passed him into the final chicane, but then you have no battery the next straight. So I was like, ‘See you later! Try again in a few laps!’”

Red Bull’s championship situation has been compounded by technical issues taking Hadjar and Verstappen out of the Melbourne and Shanghai races respectively, when they were running in fifth and sixth, causing a potential 16-point loss.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

Meanwhile, although Franco Colapinto has struggled, Gasly has maximised Alpine’s potential, after the team sacrificed its 2025 campaign to focus on the new-for-2026 regulations early on.

Gasly qualified seventh in the last three sessions (sprint included), scoring points in every grand prix with 10th in Melbourne (from 12th on the grid), sixth at Shanghai and seventh at Suzuka.

Fourth-placed Haas led Red Bull in the standings even before the Japanese round, as Oliver Bearman took seventh and fifth in Australia and China.

Ahead of the season, one might have thought that Red Bull Ford, as a new power unit manufacturer, might be the team’s Achilles heel, but the RB22’s flaws lie elsewhere, according to Hadjar.

“We have a good power unit. The engine is good. The chassis side is terrible. We're just slow in the corners,” the 21-year-old coolly stated.

“The only positive right now is that I can drive the car fast. But we have no lead on how we can make the car fast.”

Perhaps the upcoming Pirelli test, scheduled to take place at Suzuka on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, will be useful in that regard.

“We’ve got upgrades coming up, we’re going to test them, do some sim work, understand what happened on the weekend,” Hadjar told Canal+. “I hope it’ll rain on Tuesday and Wednesday to get some running done and get a head start on others.”

Additional reporting by Jake Boxall-Legge and Ronald Vording

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Isack Hadjar has claimed his Red Bull Formula 1 car was undriveable to the point that it was dangerous in the Japanese Grand Prix.

Having qualified eighth at Suzuka, Hadjar lost three places in the first two laps, which “really sucked”, on his way to a 12th-place finish.

F1 Japanese GP: Safety car helps Kimi Antonelli to victory

Asked about the poor result, the Frenchman said: “It's not even 1% of how bad this race was. So it's no big deal. It's just I need to understand why that battery situation, and so early. Because I was comfortable in eighth. The plan was to fight Pierre [Gasly], which we were doing, and it all faded away with an empty battery. And then you're just powerless.”

Hadjar still had a decent chance of points from 11th, but was offered feisty resistance by Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who was given a black-and-white last-warning flag for moving under braking before the chicane – which the Red Bull driver branded as “not very useful for both of us, but it's OK, he's young”.

Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

Then Hadjar was among the drivers who pitted before the safety car intervention, which dropped him to 13th. He did overtake Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto to fight back to 11th, enjoying his battles with the Audis, but eventually was repassed by the German and therefore finished 12th.

“We didn’t have good pace anyway,” the Hadjar lamented on Canal+. “That was expected, but it was worse than earlier in the weekend. It was really, really undriveable – it even was dangerous. So that was tricky.”

And as F1 goes into a five-week break following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix, Hadjar has little cause for optimism.

“The only positive right now is that I can drive the car fast. But we have no lead on how we can make the car fast,” he tersely said, having scored just four points over the first three rounds of the season.

Additional reporting by Jake Boxall-Legge

Photos from Japanese GP - Sunday

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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Pierre Gasly, Alpine

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An Oracle Red Bull Racing fan.

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Car of Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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Brie Larson.

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Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

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Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Alexander Albon, Williams

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Ferrari fans.

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Oscar Piastri's car, McLaren

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Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

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Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

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Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

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Charlie Day and Jack Black visit the Mercedes AMG F1 Team garage.

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Nico Hülkenberg, Audi F1 Team, George Russell, Mercedes

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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

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Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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Benny Safdie

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Carlos Sainz, Williams, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

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Nico Hulkenberg, Audi F1 Team, George Russell, Mercedes, Carlos Sainz, Williams, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

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Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

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Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

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Zak Brown, McLaren

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Toto Wolff, Mercedes

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Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari

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Oscar Piastri, McLaren

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Oscar Piastri, McLaren

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls

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George Russell, Mercedes

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Pierre Gasly, Alpine

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Lando Norris, McLaren

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

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Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls

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Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

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Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team car after his crash

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Pierre Gasly, Alpine

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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

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Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

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Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing, Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team

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Oscar Piastri, McLaren Team

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Toto Wolff, Mercedes

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

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Oscar Piastri, McLaren

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

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