Alpine greets Renault and embraces Mercedes. Luca De Meo, CEO of the brand, in a long exclusive released toTeam he spoke about the reasons that led him to make this choice, but much more may be hidden behind this action.
Alpine separates from Renault and chooses Mercedes
The news that saw an important brand like Alpine abandons Renault to obtain Mercedes Power Units starting from 2026 in F1 is incredible. The transalpine company, which has always linked its name to that of Renault, will begin a new cycle as desired by Luca De Meo even if no one would have ever expected a similar scenario which could hide important revelations, as we will explain below.
Currently, the BWT Alpine team occupies ninth position in the Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship with only 13 points. A sum that does not do justice to a team that in the past has fought for the top, also winning two titles together with Fernando Alonso.
Results that no longer suit CEO Luca De Meo, who spoke as follows during an exclusive interview given to Equipe:
“I am a manager and I run a company listed on the stock exchange. I have to rethink the Formula 1 project to finally win. I look for shortcuts to reach the goalbecause in Formula 1 we have become invisible. Another two years of this and the project would deflate completely. We have been in decline for three seasons and we had to overturn everything with, in parallel, a financial logic”.
The choice of Mercedes has been identified as one “shortcut”, a shorter road that leads to the final objective and which could, perhaps, allow the transalpine brand to fight for the title by giving up the Enstone headquarters.
Alpine close to sale? The costs of developing an F1 engine
Also during the statements given to the French sports newspaper, De Meo continued: “True enthusiasts don’t worry about this calculation, but I do. Four engine manufacturers today offer an engine. Maintaining such an activity here costs 200 to 250 million euros per yearin addition to the budget of 150 million per year. Aston Martin, McLaren, Haas, Williams – who among other things are ahead of us – are not investing these 200-250 million”.
The budget is a big problem in Formula 1 and with this strong concept Luca De Meo underlined that despite the Enstone engine department developing Power Units at a considerable cost, this effort does not allow the team to win. In fact, they aren’t even ahead of teams like Aston Martin (for example), which doesn’t develop the engine properly.
The choice to opt for Mercedes as engine manufacturer from 2026 is an operation that tends to streamline Enstone’s structure (the engines for the hypercars competing in the WEC championship will be produced there), but for what reason? On this we can consider two different scenarios: the first is that at Alpine they were not at all convinced about the 2026 Power Unit after testing it on the test bench and with this they took off the burden of keeping the engine department alive, as can be guessed from the statements released by De Meo himself. This could mean that Alpine didn’t have confidence in its Power Unit – strange for a manufacturer – but not unlikely.
The second hypothesis, the bloodiest one for the very future of the French brandposes a question. One wonders whether Mercedes, when it formalizes the partnership with Alpine, will only supply the engine as happens with McLaren, or the entire rear end of the 2026 single-seater – i.e. suspension and transmission – giving greater involvement. This complete supply could lead to a possible sale of the team which would become more of a customer team, far from the relaunch idea desired by Flavio Briatore.
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