“We are getting slower and slower.” The Alpines have become a moving chicane in F1, and are on their way to their worst year

The arrival of Franco Colapinto to Formula 1 has had one main loser. Since Williams races with two competitive drivers has overtaken Alpine in the constructors’ world championshipsending Renault’s sports brand to a painful penultimate position in the world of brands.

The one in Singapore was once again the umpteenth catastrophic race for the French team, once again out of the points and very far from even the top ten. Only Sauber’s depressing abandonment has Alpine far from last position, but they are still on the verge of signing his worst season in Formula 1.

For the first time in history, the Renault team could finish second to last in F1

It is already a fact. Colapinto’s brilliant emergence into Formula 1 has helped Williams, with its points, overtake Alpine in the world championship. That is to say, The Renault team right now is the second worst in Formula 1only ahead of a Sauber that simply limits itself to laconically waiting for Audi to arrive.

“Every race we go slower. We have to find some performance and we have a lot of work ahead of us to improve our current level,” said Esteban Ocon after a poor thirteenth position in Singapore. For him the ordeal is over now, because next year he will race for Haas.

For the one who continues it is for Pierre Gasly, who next year will share a team with Jack Doohan at Alpine. He finished seventeenth and penultimate in Singapore, and his mental state seems more delicate: “It is a very frustrating situation. We are not fast or competitive right now,” lamented the Frenchman.

In the entire history of Renault in Formula 1 they have never finished in a penultimate position, but it seems that Alpine is willing to hit the bottom of the company this season. Although they are only three points away from recovering the position with Williams, the truth is that the trend does not invite optimism.

They carry three races in a row without scoring and the best result they have achieved all year is ninth place, repeated on several occasions. Which means that there is no condition in which they do especially well. At least they are almost guaranteed not to finish last, since Sauber has not yet scored.

And it is not even clear that they will be able to get rid of that expensive Renault engine, because their workers have gone on strike. Alpine smells bad.