Despite no official confirmation about the end of Renault’s engine efforts in Formula 1, it has been clear for several weeks where things are heading.
Talks taking place behind the scenes with rival manufacturers about potential customer deals, and a preliminary agreement with Mercedes believed to now be in place, told their own story about Alpine F1's shift from a manufacturer to customer team status.
Things moved forward this week though when, as revealed by Autosport, staff at Renault’s factories at Viry-Chatillon and Enstone were informed of an evaluation study to plot a new future for its engine division.
The idea is to move it away from involvement in F1 and look at ways it can help future-proof the Renault organisation – potentially through new technologies like hydrogen.
Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Alpine’s outgoing team principal Bruno Famin opened up about where things were at, and the factors that were at play to prompt Renault to abandon an F1 engine legacy that dates back to the late 1970s.
Famin confirmed the presentation to staff at Viry of the evaluation study, which he feels will better suit Alpine’s future road car expansion.
“The project which has been presented at the beginning of the week to the staff representative in Viry-Chatillon is to reallocate the resources from one side to another,” he said.
“One side is being the development of the Formula 1 power unit, which is being made in Viry, and to dedicate those resources and skills to developing new technologies for the brand, for the new product of the brand.
“One of the consequences of this project, if it's accepted, would be then for the Alpine F1 team to buy a power unit instead of developing its own power unit. And then we'll have more resources to develop the brand and a different power unit to race.”
The motivation for change
Renault’s decision to end its F1 engine project marks a big change in direction, and one that is ultimately fuelled by both competitive and financial factors.
It is hugely expensive to run an engine programme in F1, and those cost can be extreme if, as Renault has found, the end product actually puts you slightly on the back foot.
While some have suggested that the decision to become a customer team was prompted because Renault’s 2026 engine progress was far behind where it needed to be, Famin insists that is not the case.
“We all know that since 2014 we don’t have the best engine in Viry, but it’s one of the engines that improved the most since 2014,” he said.
“Now we’re still not exactly at the top, but the improvement had been very good and the job which is being done in Viry to prepare the 2026 engine is incredible.
“We fixed very high targets, and I am confident that we can reach that target. The figures we had from the dyno are very good.”
However, there is no denying that the advantages for an F1 team of running its own engine are much less than they were in the past.
For example, Famin, who has come from the Viry side of the business, says that as manufacturers have got ever more on top of things, installation gains to be had compared to a customer unit are minimal.
So, the cost versus benefit ratio for a manufacturer in producing its own engine has moved a lot – which is one of the reasons for Renault's change of heart.
As Famin explained: “There's a bit of potential in developing the integration.
“But it's quite theoretical at the end of the story, because now all the PU manufacturers are working very closely, very early in the project, with the teams and all the integrations are incredibly optimised.
“If we take a Ferrari or Mercedes engine, I'm quite convinced that all the integration, all the packaging, will be already very, very good.”
Famin said that the decision to potentially abandon the works project is simply because it does not make sense for what Alpine is hoping to achieve in the automotive market, where money can be better spent elsewhere.
“We are at a very specific crossroads,” he said, when asked why Renault had suddenly decided to end being a manufacturer team.
“The project for developing the Alpine brand is now very concrete, very clear, and we know the resources needed for developing it.
“So, it's because now the question at the Alpine brand point of view is 'how do we use, in the best possible way for developing the brand, the resources we have?'”
The likely timetable
Famin said that the project currently revolves around the change of engine plans coming into play for 2026, even though sources suggest there is a possibility things could be fast-tracked to 2025 if certain circumstances fall into play.
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The timeline for completing the evaluation is unclear, and much will depend on the response from trade union representatives in France. Famin said it could be a matter of days, or could drag on much longer.
“We need to finish the social process in Viry,” he said. “It can take one week, it can take two months. And we need to finish that process.”
While French labour laws are very strict, and the likelihood is of every change being pored over in detail, Famin did make clear that there was no risk of current personnel losing their jobs.
“We are following all the mandatory steps, and there is no reason not to make it properly,” he said. “One very important thing is in the project, which has been presented, every single employee will be offered a job. There is no redundancy at all.
“We are doing everything to make potentially a very difficult moment as less painful as possible. But we know it's never easy, this kind of thing.”
The sale question
One theory that has long surrounded the motivation for Renault to abandon its works engine project has been that it is linked to a potential sale of the Alpine team.
One of the theoretical hurdles for any investors potentially interested in coming on board and taking over the Alpine operation was that they would also have to commit to the Renault engine part of the project.
Cutting that aspect completely allows Renault to ring fence the Alpine element, making a sale much more straightforward.
However, Renault CEO Luca de Meo has consistently denied that there is any desire to cash out, and it is something that Famin has reiterated as well despite a change of engine plan.
“The F1 project remains a key project for the Alpine brand,” added Famin.
“It's thanks to F1 that we want to develop the brand awareness globally, and that remains. But the project [to change what Viry does], it's just relocating the resources to develop the brand better, always based on the pillar of motorport, and mainly F1, to develop the awareness.”
