The four teams at the front of the 2026 championship have scored between 204 and 468 points. The seven behind them have scored 188 between them. That second group is where the real fighting is, because Formula 1’s prize money is paid by constructors’ position and every place in the midfield is worth a sum that can build a wind tunnel programme. After 13 rounds Racing Bulls leads it on 75 points, Alpine has 62, and the rest are scrapping for the places below. This is how it stands and why it matters.
The prize money
Formula 1 distributes a share of its revenues to the teams according to where they finish in the constructors’ championship, with each position worth several million dollars more than the one below. The exact figures are confidential but the structure is not, and it is why a team will spend a fortune in legal fees over a single point. Audi’s decision to appeal the stewards’ verdict on Yuki Tsunoda’s Monza restart, a case about one point, makes complete sense in that light. One point can be the difference between eighth and ninth, and eighth pays more.
Racing Bulls: best of the rest
Fifth place is a triumph for a team that has spent the season as Red Bull’s spare-parts department. Racing Bulls lost Isack Hadjar to promotion, lost Liam Lawson to the senior team when Hadjar was injured, and has run Yuki Tsunoda and rookie Arvid Lindblad for three rounds while calling the arrangement “not ideal”. Lindblad’s 29 points and Lawson’s early-season haul have kept the team 13 points clear of Alpine. Holding fifth to Abu Dhabi would be the team’s best result since 2021.
Alpine: the Monza surge
Alpine is the team with momentum. Pierre Gasly’s pole position at Monza was built on a folding rear wing that will suit several remaining circuits, and Gasly has told Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris that a fight with the bigger teams is “realistic”. The team’s season has also had the Monaco podium stripped by the appeal court and Flavio Briatore’s public war with the FIA, but 62 points from an inconsistent car is a solid base, and Franco Colapinto’s improving form gives it two scorers.
Haas, Audi and the customer question
Haas is seventh on 21, its season defined by Oliver Bearman’s consistent scoring and by the awkwardness of running a customer Ferrari engine that the team itself called “no game-changer” after the Monza upgrade. Haas has ruled out switching focus to 2027 early, which tells you how much seventh place is worth. Audi is eighth on 16 in its debut season, five points behind, with Gabriel Bortoleto outscoring Nico Hülkenberg and the team’s litigation over the Tsunoda point showing its intent. Seventh versus eighth will probably be decided by which of the two finds the last tenth in the final flyaway races.
Williams, Aston Martin and Cadillac
The bottom three are further back than their budgets suggest. Williams has 11 points in a season it always framed as a rebuilding year, with Carlos Sainz’s new contract the real result. Aston Martin has three, a return that would have been unthinkable during its 2023 podium run and one that has pushed the team to warn against “arrogant” expectations. Cadillac has none, though Sergio Perez’s talk of a “breakthrough” at Madrid suggests the new team is targeting specific weekends. For all three the season’s remaining value lies in what they learn for 2027.
What decides it
Ten rounds remain, including circuits like Baku and Singapore where a safety car can hand a midfield car a top-six finish, and a single result of that kind is worth more than a season of eleventh places. The teams know it. Expect strategy gambles, appeals and the occasional public argument, because the money at the end of the table is real and the difference between winning and losing it is often one point.
Frequently asked questions
Who leads the midfield?
Racing Bulls, fifth on 75 points after 13 rounds, ahead of Alpine on 62 and Haas on 21.
Why does fifth place matter?
Prize money is paid by constructors’ position, with each place worth several million dollars more than the one below.
Why did Audi appeal over one point?
Because in the midfield one point can change a constructors’ position worth millions.
Where are Williams and Aston Martin?
Ninth and tenth, on 11 and 3 points, with Cadillac eleventh on zero.
