Renault will cease producing Formula 1 engines at the end of next season, with its Alpine team likely to become a Mercedes client from 2026.
The decision will end Renault’s almost half a century of Formula 1 involvement as an engine manufacturer, having first entered the sport in 1977.
The French auto giant has been present in F1 as either a constructor or engine supplier every year since except for 1987–88, though between 1998 and 2000 its motors were branded as Mecachrome and Supertec.
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Renault power has been behind 12 constructors championships — five with Williams (1992–94, 1996–97), four with Red Bull Racing (2010–13), two with its own works team (2005–06) and one with Benetton (1995) — as well as 11 drivers titles, including with Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1993), Michael Schumacher (1994), Damon Hill (1996), Jacques Villeneuve (1997), Fernando Alonso (2005–06) and Sebastian Vettel (2010–13).
It leaves Formula 1 with five power unit manufacturers for its new regulatory era, up from four under the current rules: existing manufacturers Honda, Mercedes and Ferrari along with newcomers Audi and the Ford-supported Red Bull Powertrains.
Renault had long telegraphed its intention to shutter its power unit operation, having launched a review into its factory in Viry-Châtillon, on the outskirts of Paris, in July.
Despite staff strikes and protests — including from the grandstands of the Italian Grand Prix earlier this year — management could not be swayed to keep the costly and underperforming program, resolving instead to restructure the department to focus on racing brand Alpine’s other motorsport endeavours, including in the World Endurance Championship, Formula E and Dakar.
In a press release confirming the news but barely mentioning its F1 program, Alpine CEO Philippe Krief said the factory’s new focus was essential to boutique sports car brand’s future.
“It is a turning point in the history of the Viry-Châtillon site, which will ensure the continuity of a savoir-faire and the inclusion of its rare skills in the group’s ambitious future while strengthening Alpine’s position as an ‘innovation garage’,” he said.
“Its racing DNA remains a cornerstone of the brand. It will continue to fuel an unprecedented industrial and automotive project.”
The statement added that “following the consultation process and dialogue with the employee representatives at Viry-Châtillon, Alpine has decided to establish an F1 monitoring unit … to maintain employees’ knowledge and skills in this sport and remain at the forefront of innovation for Hypertech Alpine’s various projects”.
It says no staff will be lost in the restructuring process.
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ALPINE WANTS TO DO MORE WITH LESS
It’s long been a maxim in Formula 1 that only teams with works engines can succeed.
It’s a rule with precious few exceptions. Brawn was the last true customer team to win the constructors championship, triumphing with Mercedes power in 2009. Before that it was Benetton, which claimed the teams title with a Renault motor in 1995.
McLaren will become just the third customer winner in almost 30 years this season if it can convert its current points lead at the top of the championship standings.
Alpine giving up what should be a rare and valuable performance advantage is therefore a highly unusual decision.
The move has two key motivations.
The first is that Renault has failed to master the turbo-hybrid regulations. Its early efforts under the rules introduced in 2014 were unreliable, and though longevity has since improved, the French motor is the least powerful in the sport. Regulations freezing engine performance development has locked in its disadvantage since 2022.
The brand thinks the deficit is worth several tenths of a second per lap. This year on average Alpine has been ninth fastest in qualifying and 1.373 seconds off the pace, though it’s locked in a tight midfield battle with RB, Haas and Williams spread over 0.362 seconds.
Though work has already started on the new 2026 power unit, it’s based on similar architecture as the current motor. The removal of the complicated MGU-H stands as the major difference, though electrical output will also be boosted to around 50 per cent of total engine power.
Alpine is tipped to pursue a Mercedes customer supply, with Silver Arrows boss Toto Wolff having revealed in July that “exploratory discussions’ had already taken place.
With Mercedes engines having dominated most of the turbo-hybrid era and tipped to emerge as a frontrunner from 2026, Renault has opted for what it hopes will be a short-term performance boost, even if it comes in exchange for a long-term reduction in the team’s potential.
The second is that an F1 engine program is massively expensive.
Costs run deep into $100 million territory to build and maintain the current power unit, for which development is banned for anything but reliability fixes.
The engine cost cap for 2026 has been set at a sky-high US$130 million (A$192 million).
For engine customers, however, the bill is markedly lower. Regulations demand a power unit client can be charged a maximum of €15 million (A$25 million) per year, representing enormous savings.
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MOVE LEAVES ALPINE WITH AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
The decision to approach its F1 program with cost-cutting in mind is in keeping with the approach Renault’s took to its comeback as a constructor in 2016, when it said it wanted to compete with the sport’s grandees on a fraction of the budget.
While it’s true that the astronomical costs of competition at the time were unsustainable — the sport later instituted a cost cap to rein in spending — it locked Enstone onto a path of middling performance from which it’s struggled to deviate.
The inevitable plateau in results stemming from the structural underspend led to round after round of bloodletting, which in turn further restricted the team’s ability to grow.
Iconic French four-time champion Alain Prost, who was a Renault ambassador in the early years of its comeback, blasted the team’s lumbering direction in a column for L’Equipe in 2023, after the team instituted what was then its latest managerial clean-out.
“In my years at Renault, how many times did I hear in the hallways of the headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt that F1 was a simple sport that could be managed from home by the men in place,” he wrote.
“That was a huge mistake, as was proven with the last of the directors, Laurent Rossi, whom [Renault CEO] Luca de Meo let go a week ago.
“His management stopped the momentum the team had built since 2016.”
This year the team has sunk to ninth in the constructors championship with just 13 points, down from sixth with 120 points last year and fourth with 173 points in 2022.
With success increasingly hard to come by for the once-great Renault team, speculation has mounted that offloading its engine division is the first step towards an eventual sale in the medium term.
The logic is that an independent team with a supply contract would be more attractive to a prospective buyer than a multinational operation comprising an underperforming British team and a costly French engine program.
The appointment of controversial former team boss — and legendary Italian businessman and wheeler-dealer — Flavio Briatore as executive adviser earlier this year only turbocharged that speculation.
The team has denied it’ll be sold, insisting that Renault’s commitment to the sport is absolute.
But it’s difficult to tally that proposition with Renault giving up its engine program, historically the most important indicator of championship success.
Otherwise all it’s done is deliberately knobble its own performance potential.
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