Alpine with Mercedes engines
It will take some time for fans to get used to the idea, but from 2026 Alpine will become a Mercedes customer F1 team. The implication is quite clear: the team, which is the official expression of the Renault group in Formula 1 and that is one of the historic competitors in the category, you will no longer build a power unit at homea bit like Haas does with Ferrari or – to cite more successful examples – McLaren does with Mercedes itself. A decision that the CEO Luca De Meo he admits it was painful, even if it was taken to revive the team’s chances of making an impact in the competition after a few years in free fall.
“Heartbreaking” Renault’s farewell
“It was heartbreaking – said De Meo in an interview with the French sports newspaper The Team – make this choice, but it is the result of months and months of analysis and observations. I admire the commitment and tenacity of the people who work at Viry-Chatillon (the factory where the Renault-Alpine power unit is designed and assembled, ed) and I know that they will put this spirit into the next projects they dedicate themselves to. It hurts to see them so disappointed, but in my job I can’t think like a fan… I’m a manager, I run a publicly traded company and I have to rethink the F1 program to win. I’m looking for shortcuts to finally get there. We had become invisiblewith two more seasons like the current one the project would have deflated. We needed to shake things up and, at the same time, find economic sense”.
The costs for an F1 power unit
The Italian manager then recalled how the perception of F1 for fans has changed compared to a few years ago: “Fans and sponsors want safety, not an engine. Business partners sign deals with McLaren, not with the Mercedes engine that McLaren has under the hood. The public has changed, today it supports a driver or a team, not a power unit. Building one costs the company between 200 and 250 million euros per year, in addition to the budget cap of 150 millionand teams with Aston Martin, McLaren, Haas and Williams, which by the way are all ahead of us in the standings, do not invest this extra 200-250 million. Getting the Mercedes engine, on the other hand, costs less than 20 million a year we spend more than others but we get nothing more”.
Alpine is not leaving F1
De Meo then denied the downsizing of the project: “Every two weeks I get calls from eccentric financiers who want to get into F1. After 2026 it will cost much more because if today they give you a billion to buy the team, they know that in two years they will be able to sell it for double. It’s all about the speculators and I have refused fifty times. A team will soon be worth between 3 and 5 billion and we have no intention of selling. Being here is essential for the Alpine brand, we are in an exclusive club which gives credibility to the brand among enthusiasts. And then it helps to increase the financial value of the group. When the program was presented to me, F1 was just a cost item while today we have a value of a billion. We don’t need money, we won’t sell the family jewels”.
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