Alpine Sets Unwanted Record as F1's Most Competitive Last-Place Team

Alpine finished the 2025 F1 season in a dismal last place, yet paradoxically became the most competitive last-placed team in the sport's history. The team scored 22 points—all by Pierre Gasly—setting a new record for the lowest-finishing squad and highlighting a season of strange contrasts and a dramatic fall from grace for the French manufacturer.

Why it matters:

Alpine's season is a stark tale of two narratives. On one hand, it underscores the incredible overall competitiveness of the modern F1 grid, where even the slowest car is not hopelessly off the pace. On the other, it marks a catastrophic failure for Renault, which as a works team has plummeted from fighting for "best of the rest" in 2022 to the absolute bottom, a decline driven by strategic missteps and turbulent leadership.

The details:

• Record-Setting Last Place: Alpine's 22 points are the most ever scored by a team finishing last. Gasly alone secured all of them across just six race weekends, a massive 48 points behind 9th-placed Sauber.
• Surprising Single-Lap Pace: Despite being the slowest car on average over a race distance, the A525 was relatively quick over one lap. Gasly reached Q3 in 11 of 24 races, and the car's ~1.4% qualifying pace deficit is the smallest for a backmarker in the 21st century.
• A Historic Gap: The team was so far adrift that it mathematically secured last place before the final race in Abu Dhabi. Even a 1-2 finish wouldn't have been enough to move them up the standings.
• Rapid Decline: The fall has been precipitous. In 2022, under the same regulations, Alpine finished 4th with 65 points. The 2025 total is just a fraction of that recent success, representing one of F1's fastest falls from grace.
• Root Causes: The team's early pivot to the 2026 regulations left the 2025 car's inherent issues unaddressed, while rivals made bigger-than-expected performance gains. This was compounded by years of management instability.

What's next:

Alpine's future hinges on its 2026 transition to a Mercedes customer team, a move made after shutting down its own engine program. Executive advisor Flavio Briatore has set ambitious targets of fighting for podiums immediately, but optimism must be tempered by reality. While becoming a customer team is almost certain to be an improvement over 2025, climbing back from the depths of last place to the front of the midfield will be a monumental task for a team still recovering from a deeply troubled era.