Racing Bulls have emerged as the leaders of the midfield pack across the first half of 2026, the squad having risen to fifth in the Teams’ Championship after several double points finishes. Going forward, can they keep their rivals at bay and claim the best finish in the team’s history? Here is their half term report…
Best finish
Liam Lawson – 6th in Monaco and Great Britain
The season quickly got off to a solid start for Racing Bulls, with rookie Arvid Lindblad scoring points on his debut in Australia while Liam Lawson added to the tally with a P7 at the next round in China.
More top-10 finishes were to come across the next few races, but it was in Monaco that the drivers sealed their first double points result of the campaign, Lawson leading the way in sixth ahead of Lindblad in seventh.
That same outcome was repeated at the British Grand Prix, with that haul proving valuable in moving Racing Bulls to within one point of Alpine as they fought for fifth in the standings. The squad would go on to topple their Enstone-based rivals two rounds later in Hungary.
Qualifying head-to-head
Lawson 6-5 Lindblad
Considering that it is his first season in Formula 1, Lindblad has acquitted himself well against Lawson – something that particularly shows in the Qualifying statistics, where the pair are practically on equal footing.
Lawson just holds the edge over his team mate by six to five, though Lindblad is responsible for the team’s best grid slot of the season so far via his P7 at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Race head-to-head
Lawson 8-3 Lindblad
It is also Lawson who leads the race head-to-head numbers, having crossed the line ahead of Lindblad at eight Grands Prix – though the gap between them has often been small.
In terms of non-finishes, Lawson has so far recorded one retirement in Miami, while Lindblad did not start the Canadian Grand Prix due to a clutch issue on his car.
Best moment
There have been plenty of highlights for Racing Bulls across the first half of the season, including a string of double points finishes for Lawson and Lindblad.
But perhaps the best moment of all was leapfrogging Alpine to take P5 in the Teams’ Championship thanks to another top-10 result for both drivers at the Hungaroring, a target that Team Principal Alan Permane admitted the squad had “all been working so hard towards”.
“It’s a great way to finish off the first half of the season,” Permane added. “We always aim for operational perfection and we came very close to that today.”
Worst moment
Racing Bulls have enjoyed an impressive run so far in 2026, having scored points at every round – with the only exception being Miami, which perhaps marked the team’s toughest outing to date.
On a busy Sprint weekend, Lindblad missed out on valuable running after a technical issue left him unable to start the 100km dash, while Lawson ended the event outside of the points in P14.
Things did not improve much on Sunday for the Red Bull sister outfit. Lawson recorded his only DNF of the season to date following contact with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, and Lindblad did not have the pace to climb through the order, the Briton crossing the line down in P14.
Going forward
Having ended the first half of the season with that much sought-after P5 in the standings, Racing Bulls will be keen to keep the momentum going into the remainder of the campaign and retain their position at the head of the midfield.
Permane sounded a confident note ahead of the summer break, the Team Principal stating that the squad would be “returning even stronger in Zandvoort”.
As for the drivers, Lawson – who is currently ‘best of the rest’ in P9 of the Drivers’ Championship – has set the target of “scoring points in as many weekends as we can” rather than aiming for a specific position, with the New Zealander hoping that the outfit can be the “best midfield team”.
Lindblad is similarly focused on taking things race-by-race, his goal being to “try to do the best I can” and “maximise every time I get in the car”.
Should Racing Bulls retain that fifth place at the end of it all, the result would mark the strongest finish in the team’s history, with sixth being the best so far across their previous guises as Toro Rosso, AlphaTauri, RB and their current name – meaning that it will surely be a key aim to hold onto it going forward.