Racing Bulls have done something almost nobody in the paddock had on their bingo card for 2026: overhauled Alpine, planted themselves at the head of the midfield, and turned an upgraded VCARB 03 into the most consistent car outside the top four.

In its 2026 midseason review, Motorsport.com handed the Faenza squad the highest positive-surprise grade on the board, a B, after the Anglo-Italian team amassed 66 points to end the first half of the season in fifth place, described by the outlet as the midfield’s most consistent performer.

The turning point was a floor upgrade brought to the Canadian Grand Prix. Since Montreal, at least one Racing Bulls car has reached Q3 at every round, the team has scored double points on five occasions, and only once, in Belgium, has one of its drivers finished outside the top ten.

Permane on how the season turned

Team principal Alan Permane, who took full charge after Laurent Mekies was promoted to the senior Red Bull team in 2025, credited the Montreal floor with switching the car on and pointed to Austria and Silverstone as proof that the second missing piece, race pace, had also been solved.

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“The second part of what’s really helped our season is finding the race pace,” Permane told Motorsport.com.

“What Austria and Silverstone have shown is that we’ve fixed that.”

Lindblad and Lawson hold up their end

The driver pairing has held up its end. Liam Lawson, running the car full-time after a bruising stint at the senior team in 2025, sits ninth in the drivers’ standings on 43 points, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Alongside him, 19-year-old Arvid Lindblad, the only rookie on the 2026 grid, scored on debut in Australia and has kept adding to the tally, with Nikola Tsolov waiting in the junior programme.

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Mercedes and Ferrari own the top of the sheet

The bigger picture makes Racing Bulls’ fifth place all the more striking. Mercedes lead the constructors’ championship on 379 points, 72 clear of Ferrari on 307. McLaren sit third on 220, with Red Bull fourth on 177.

Kimi Antonelli, in his second season at Mercedes, leads the drivers’ championship on 219 points, 50 clear of Lewis Hamilton after finishing third in Hungary. George Russell is third on 160, Charles Leclerc fourth on 138.

Lando Norris took the win at the Hungaroring but is fifth in the drivers’ standings on 128 points, with team-mate Oscar Piastri seventh on 92. Max Verstappen, sixth on 109, is closer to the McLarens than to Antonelli.

The second half resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 23 August, with eleven rounds still to run.

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