£1.1bn Formula 1 team were ‘removing stickers’ from their 2024 car in desperate attempt to save weight

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Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, reigning world champions Red Bull scrapped a plan to run a special livery. The custom design would add around a kilogram of weight to the car, which would slow it down.

The difference was likely to be minuscule – only a few thousandths of a second. But such is the close nature of the fight at the front, Red Bull didn’t want to take the risk.

In the end, Max Verstappen had no answer for the pace of Lando Norris. He finished more than 20 seconds adrift, but he’ll be content with second place ahead of the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

2024 is the penultimate year of F1’s ‘ground effect’ ruleset, and the field has consequently converged. At the recent Italian GP, just a second separated the top 10 cars in qualifying, with the top five covered by less than two-tenths.

Margins have closed up throughout the field. While scoreless Sauber have become detached, Aston Martin, RB, Haas, Williams and Alpine could finish anywhere between the lower points places and 18th on a given weekend.

Aston will almost certainly finish fifth in the championship, but just three points separate RB and Haas (34 vs 31). And the margin between Williams and Alpine is exactly the same (16 vs 13).

Alpine had to take drastic action with overweight 2024 car

Alpine started the year with the slowest car on the grid. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly locked out the back row at the season-opener in Bahrain.

Given their status as a manufacturer team and their recent track record – they finished sixth last year and scored two podiums – they were fully expected to improve as the season wore on. Ocon would bag their first point in Miami in May, and both cars finished in the top 10 at back-to-back races in Canada and Austria.

But they appear to have lost some ground in the development race. They’ve gone three races without scoring and they’ve only managed two ninth-place finishes in the last seven events.

Speaking on F1 podcast Nailing the Apex, Tim Hauraney said many of their issues, particularly early in the year, stemmed from being too heavy. They went as far as peeling stickers off the car in a desperate attempt to shave that weight.

“They build a car for this season that just doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s super heavy. They’re removing stickers at the start of the season just to remove a few grams here, just to gain a few thousandths of a second.”

Why Alpine’s Mercedes engine deal could be an issue for investors like Rory McIlroy

Alpine wanted to be scoring regular podiums by 2024, but instead they’re set to finish bottom of the constructors’ championship. This effectively gave CEO Luca de Meo two options.

He’d already revamped the team’s senior leadership, only to watch them regress. He could either channel more funds into the operation, or cut his losses.

Alpine’s switch to Mercedes power units suggests he’s taking the latter approach. They’ll still enjoy the commercial benefits of being in Formula 1, without the cost of building their own engine.

However, this is a move that could concern investors. Rory McIlroy and co. may consider their future with Alpine, who could be on the path towards a sale.