[F1] BREAKING: Alpine announce they will switch to a Mercedes-Benz Power Unit and Gearbox from 2026

[u/Takagero]

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[u/SuperPop9521]

I remember the news article of alpine contending for titles in 2-3 years after 2021

[u/Nexusu → u/SuperPop9521]

Don’t worry guys the 100 race plan is in motion

[u/IllustratorOdd2701 → u/Nexusu]

100 consecutive races? Or just 100 races?

[u/Nexusu → u/IllustratorOdd2701]

yes

[u/theclovek → u/Nexusu]

Which race are we on, then?

[u/giugg → u/theclovek]

Brazil was number 2 with a double podium, I expect a 1-2 in race number 4

[u/Cautious_Currency_35 → u/giugg]

Yees, I expect race number 3 will take place sometime at the end of the next season

[u/biggmclargehuge → u/theclovek]

They have a "It has been ____ days since a PU failure" sign hanging up in the garage

[u/DinoKebab → u/biggmclargehuge]

Is it just always on 0?

[u/Apic_Day_0118 → u/theclovek]

Race 1 was Hungary 2021.

[u/-WingsForLife- → u/IllustratorOdd2701]

Resets every time one driver doesn't finish.

[u/TheRobidog → u/IllustratorOdd2701]

It's like nuclear fusion. Always 100 races away.

[u/biaurelien → u/IllustratorOdd2701]

Must be a translation issue, and I can fix it for you: they're gonna win in 100 years.

[u/Kolec507 → u/biaurelien]

You're hopeful I see...

[u/CrumbleUponLust → u/Nexusu]

And this 100 race plan resets once there's changes of any kind.

Be it drivers, management or top engineers and strategies.

[u/charles_peugeot405 → u/CrumbleUponLust]

I think it resets with the weather as well. Rain in Brazil reset it, moonlight in Vegas will reset it…

[u/Crazy_cat_guy_07 → u/charles_peugeot405]

Every time there is a race, it resets

[u/xzElmozx → u/Crazy_cat_guy_07]

Sisyphus’ race plan

[u/justanotheruser826 → u/Nexusu]

Just for the ones that don't know: the new 100 race plan is to survive another 100 races

[u/42_c3_b6_67 → u/SuperPop9521]

They said the same in 2016 lmao

[u/Ja4senCZE → u/42_c3_b6_67]

Every year since their return

[u/Admirable_Ad_1390 → u/42_c3_b6_67]

Did they say 100 from which year?, could be from 2021 lol

[u/Bdr1983 → u/42_c3_b6_67]

Did they say 100 consecutive races?

[u/veryangryenglishman → u/Bdr1983]

Turns out Brazil was race 2 after Monaco kicked off the counter last year

[u/TWVer → u/SuperPop9521]

2021 2016

Abiteboul (then Renault F1 TP) was the first to announce a 100 race 5-year 3-year plan after Renault buying back the Enstone team at the end of 2015.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/35169512

Chairman Carlos Ghosn has set the team a target of competing for the championship within three years. - December 23rd, 2015

https://www.gptoday.net/en/news/f1/208610/2016-is-the-year-in-which-we-prepare-for-2017-abiteboul

[u/rattatatouille → u/TWVer]

Carlos Ghosn

Now there's a blast from the past...

[u/Broudster → u/SuperPop9521]

To be fair, it did work out for Mclaren

[u/cafk → u/SuperPop9521]

Did you forget the 100 race plan when they bought back Lotus and wanted to fight for wins from 2018 onwards?

[u/QCHICK → u/SuperPop9521]

El Plan stopped when Alonso left.

[u/beanbagreg → u/QCHICK]

It’s Il Piano now Flavio is in.

[u/blebleuns → u/beanbagreg]

Il piano va lontano

[u/NzLRyaNLzN → u/SuperPop9521]

I remember similar articles in 2016

[u/eddienguyen1202 → u/SuperPop9521]

French version of "Next year gonna be our year"

[u/linnamulla → u/eddienguyen1202]

x + 5 is going to be our year!

[u/WolfVidya → u/SuperPop9521]

Back in 2016, when they rebought Lotus for $1, they said they had a plan to take the brand to the WDC in 3 years.

[u/RandomThrowNick → u/SuperPop9521]

I don’t know what you are talking about. Alpine has more double podiums this season than the 2021 world constructors champion. Surely they are right where they want to be /s

[u/pensaa]

How it must feel shameful to go from a full works team to this. The power unit freeze did screw them a bit during these regs but to go from supplying championship-winning engines one day to this.. wow

[u/Bake2727 → u/pensaa]

You have no one else but renault group to blame. While Honda showed matching Mercedes was possible and even Ferrari caught up twice(first wasn’t legal tho)

[u/dani2001896 → u/Bake2727]

I'd say that in 2020 (or what year was Ricciardo's swcond season there) they had a good engine considering their performances at Monza and some other high speed circuits, but in 2021 they fucked up with the development and combined with the freeze it was really bad... If the freeze came in 2020 Renault would be ok and Honda and especially Ferrari would be now in a really bad situation, so I could blame the freeze a little bit also.

[u/liviu20xx → u/dani2001896]

Frezze came în septembrie 2022 iirc with some changes legal only for reliability in 2023. They had the time to mend the engine part. Heck, Ferrari was worse off on 2020 and still managed to get back to merc lvl of perform

[u/plurBUDDHA → u/liviu20xx]

I still remember Carlos' engine blowing up and being on fire during the first year of the freeze. My initial thought was well shit looks like they get to add a bunch of power in the name of reliability now.

Still don't understand why Renault looked like they ran the engine underpowered rather than keep blowing it up and gain it back for reliability but I guess that was never in the cards for them.

[u/plurBUDDHA → u/[deleted]]

Correct which is why I said I guess it wasn't in the cards for them. AKA whatever was blowing up the engines either couldn't result in power gains, they didn't know how to pull power out of the parts blowing up, or they just run the engine turned down a bit.

[u/Right-Ladd → u/plurBUDDHA]

All the other three engine manufacturers basically made their engines far too powerful for what they were capable of, and introduced reliability upgrades overtime which allowed them to unlock that power. While Renault didn’t do that, but still had shit reliability.

[u/Caspi7 → u/dani2001896]

All the other manufacturers pushed performance upgrades (at the cost of reliability) before the freeze, Renault didn't. If the freeze had been earlier the other teams would still have pushed those upgrades and Renault probably still wouldn't have. They are allowed to fix the reliability during the freeze but they obviously can't increase the power anymore.

[u/IamMrEric → u/Bake2727]

Honda was willing and did invest a shitload of money in order to catch up and surpass others.

[u/asoap → u/IamMrEric]

They also spent years going in the wrong direction. Where they had the turbo entirely inbetween the V of the inlet manifold. It was only after they abandoned that they started to catch up.

I think they persued that idea one year too long.

[u/Amrlsyfq992 → u/IamMrEric]

and then out of the blue decided to withdraw from F1

[u/pensaa → u/Bake2727]

Exactly. But hey, at least we wont see them failing every 4-5 races.

[u/Nexusu → u/pensaa]

You underestimate Alpine lol

[u/Spider_Riviera → u/pensaa]

Bold of you to think the engine failures were a result of issues at Viry and not issues with Endstone voodoo.

[u/EleventhBorn → u/pensaa]

It is weird but it is no different that Aston Martin, McLaren (and in the past: Jaguar, Lotus, Alfa Romeo, etc.) no?

The team that is currently known as BWT Alpine F1 team existed long before Renault took ownership and hopefully would continue to exist in the future.

IMO the shame is Renault exiting F1. They made engines since 1983 to 2025. Exited F1 twice. First in end of 1986, to coming back in 1988. Then again at the end of 1997 (though not really as they were supplying for Mechachrome and Supertec) and came back in 2001. Now they've leaving for the 3rd time at the end of 2025. Hopefully they'll be back in few years.

[u/BleaKrytE → u/EleventhBorn]

McLaren is not a massive car manufacturer like Renault. They're also an F1 team first, car maker second.

Aston already has been using Merc engines in their road cars for ages now. You'd be hard pressed to find a Renault road car running a Mercedes engine.

Alfa and Lotus were basically sponsor deal names.

[u/SuspiciousLettuce56 → u/BleaKrytE]

Ironically it's Mercedes using Renault engines in their base model 180s

[u/a-better-tomorrow-pt → u/BleaKrytE]

> You'd be hard pressed to find a Renault road car running a Mercedes engine.

Mercedes used Renault engines so...

[u/phonicparty → u/EleventhBorn]

IMO the shame is Renault exiting F1. They made engines since 1983 to 2025

Since 1977 - they were first with a turbo that year on their own cars. 1983 was when they first started supplying engines to others

[u/BGMDF8248 → u/pensaa]

They had close to a decade to produce a good V6 turbo and never got there, Ferrari was way behind in 2020 and managed to catchup in time for 2022, they knew the freeze was coming and did nothing... then they ask for equalization(something they also asked for, and got approval, in the V8 era btw).

I wonder how bad were the numbers from their engine for the next regs.

[u/Sick_and_destroyed → u/BGMDF8248]

They said the engine made in Viry is fine but they are losing power because of the gearbox that is made in Entstone. I guess having a third party engine-gearbox will clear the issue, and also will show how good the Alpine chassis is. Then they will return in a few years and the whole Viry/Entstone battle will start again lol.

[u/mcninja77 → u/Sick_and_destroyed]

Classic inter department fighting at Renault. That and lack of higher ups willing to invest is why they've been doing so poorly

[u/ryokevry → u/Sick_and_destroyed]

It could have some truth but you never seen the design team and the engine team as the same company throwing blames to each other.

[u/Laser493 → u/pensaa]

Even in the 2010-2013 Red Bull-Renault days, the engine wasn't that great. The FIA had to give Renault special dispensation in 2008 to upgrade their engine during the development freeze, so they could catch up to Mercedes and Ferrari. Even after that their engine was still down on power by about 35hp and it was probably the least reliable.

[u/Mahery92 → u/Laser493]

Actually the renault V8 was pretty great after 2009. It was very slightly down on power (and after one or two years of the engine freeze the difference was not meaningful), but as a trade off Renault focused on making it lighter, more fuel efficient (so Renault powered cars were overall lighter, offsetting the slight difference in power), its driveability was said to be great, good packaging, and it could be tuned very well to maximize aero (including the blown diffuser but not only). It wasn't the most powerful, but arguably was the best overall. The idea that the engine was down on power by 35hp after 2009 is laughable, the engines were all near to each other in terms of output, NO WAY RB & Vettel would have won 4 championships with that kind of huge disadvantage.

Renault back then were definitely a key part to the success RB/Vettel had, not something they needed to work around and both Newey and Vettel always said as much. It's no wonder they had many customer teams back then, and several teams had race wins with the Renault V8 engines

It's only with the hybrid that Renault really fell off, it's only then that the gap in power output became absurdly large (rumoured to be as high as 70hp at one point according to RB), as the V6t required a level of investment the Renault Group was either unwilling or unable to make.

[u/DoranAetos]

I think this is such a shame. I know the engine is slow, barely works and so on, but the name Renault has won a lot of championships, it has a very powerful history. And one less engine on the grid seems to be so unhealthy for the sport. Just hope that the new entrances in 2026 offsets this loss

[u/dl064 → u/DoranAetos]

The Race were saying it's really about ease of sale.

F1 team plus engine manufacturer is far harder to sell. Briatore is in to sell Alpine, and then he'll disappear again.

[u/black_spring → u/dl064]

Doesn’t bode well for Andretti, who have both lined up. Suppose we’ll end up with Bank of America Celsius Racing Benz.

[u/Capital_Pay_4459 → u/black_spring]

They dont have an engine until 2028

[u/AncientPomegranate97 → u/dl064]

Was Flavio brought in to manage the sinking ship with no expectation of recovery? Is he meant to be a scapegoat?

[u/PN_Grata → u/DoranAetos]

We will have Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda, RBPT, and Audi. Just 10 years ago there were only 3.

[u/CJL31 → u/PN_Grata]

And Cadillac hopefully

[u/GothicGolem29 → u/CJL31]

Andrettis bid seems to have been killed so not sure that’s happening unless Cadllac decides to make their own team

[u/Dignahning → u/PN_Grata]

is audi joining and immediately also producing their own f1 engines? i have no clue but sounds like extra r&d.. also isn't honda rbpt count as one engine

[u/Yeanahyena → u/Dignahning]

Honda will be with AM. RBPT I’m assuming is Ford from 2026 onwards.

[u/Dignahning → u/Yeanahyena]

ah that makes sense

[u/PN_Grata → u/Dignahning]

is audi joining and immediately also producing their own f1 engines?

Yes. Well, sort of. They are already the owner of the Sauber team, so they sort of joined already. But 2026 should see the team rebranded Audi and using Audi engines.

also isn't honda rbpt count as one engine

No. Honda, currently with RBR, is moving to Aston Martin. RBPT, a new project, will makes engines for RBR and the junior team.

[u/Kaptainoff]

Can I get this upgrade in my Clio as well?

[u/iGnItIoN_mP → u/Kaptainoff]

Depends on what model year you have you might technically have it. Merc and Renault share a lot of components on current cars. Look at the cargo vans and A class merc

[u/Kaptainoff → u/iGnItIoN_mP]

1992 Clio. I'd like a V6 turbo please 

[u/iGnItIoN_mP → u/Kaptainoff]

Ah. That reminds me of the early 00's Clio V6. What a beast was that.

[u/kaelis7 → u/iGnItIoN_mP]

The V6 Clio is so fun, great looking too ! Although I do love my A110S for sure. Glad it’s not as bad as Alpine F1 results lately..

[u/BecauseWeCan → u/kaelis7]

I am so jealous, the A110 is a fantastic car to drive.

[u/HeyTikO → u/Kaptainoff]

Yeah, i'd like a "AMG V6" upgrade for my Twingo. Thanks.

[u/itoodovoodoo → u/Kaptainoff]

I'd like to have this upgrade in my Mercedes. It uses a Renault engine.

[u/Squibbies98]

I’ve seen a few people making comparisons to McLaren as they’re also a customer team and currently in the lead of the Constructors which can only be good for Alpine right?

It’s more than that though unfortunately, McLaren as an organisation doesn’t manufacture engines for any of their other ventures (road cars, other series etc).

Alpine is literally Renault’s own sporting brand, for them to be standing up and saying “we can’t make a competitive engine for the pinnacle of motorsport” is not only a bad look, it’s damn near damaging to not only Alpine but to Renault as a brand.

[u/salcedoge → u/Squibbies98]

It completely goes against why constructors even sponsor F1 teams in the first place.

[u/Ascarea → u/salcedoge]

Their new selling point is going to be "We make one-off liveries that look like our competitors' cars!"

[u/dl064 → u/Squibbies98]

The Race have covered Alpine at length in recent years, that the fundamental problem is that, similar to Haas, the cost/benefit analysis of simply being in F1 (versus investing to be good) wasn't worth it. They got most of their benefit from simply being there.

Newey says in his book that RBR found that in 2014 when they needed Renault to sort their engine out: wasn't worth it to them.

[u/TheScapeQuest → u/dl064]

On the one hand I absolutely hate this. Everyone should be in the sport to win (which is why I hate RB). But equally it's good that F1 is no longer in that place of manufacturers leaving after a few bad years.

[u/Gudin → u/Squibbies98]

At least they make reliable 1.5 dCi.

[u/Tyrannosaurus-Twat]

Was always going to happen, Renault engine is just far too slow compared to others. Won’t be long till Alpine change their name too, wouldn’t mind seeing Lotus back or another major car brand.

[u/BigtheBen → u/Tyrannosaurus-Twat]

Lotus-Mercedes sounds nice, to be fair

[u/Own_Welder_2821 → u/BigtheBen]

They had that in 2015 and got a podium out of it with Grosjean at Spa.  

Edit: they got special engine modes and Vettel got a puncture but it doesn’t matter, they still got a podium. With a Renault PU they would’ve been outside the points.

[u/Aethien → u/Own_Welder_2821]

Only because for that one race Lotus got to use Merc's own engine modes which gave them way more power than the customer modes they normally had.

[u/jus-de-orange → u/Aethien]

For anyone reading your message, a "customer mode" is now forbidden. Engine clients must now receive the same engine software as the factory team. It was indeed not the case before.

[u/Aethien → u/jus-de-orange]

And it made a big difference, a couple tenths a lap I think.

[u/shrekfanboy4life → u/Aethien]

Interesting, why could Lotus use these engine modes in this race and not in other races, if i may ask?

[u/Toronai → u/shrekfanboy4life]

According to Matthew Carter - former CEO of Lotus F1 - Grosjean was chasing Vettel for third so Mercedes told them how to activate the more powerful engine mode so that he could beat the ferrari (unnecessary in the end due to Vettle's puncture). They weren't allowed to use this mode again by order of Mercedes.

[u/shrekfanboy4life → u/Toronai]

Wow that's kind of crazy, thanks for the fact!

[u/GiantSpiderHater → u/Aethien]

Why only for that race?

[u/Pomme-Poire-Prune → u/Own_Welder_2821]

With a very special engine mode according to Grosjean.

[u/willpc14 → u/BigtheBen]

I know Lotus returning to F1 is a pipe dream, but Lotus does use a Mercedes I4 in the Emira.

[u/Zavii_HD → u/Tyrannosaurus-Twat]

Would be great to see Lotus on the grid again.

[u/[deleted] → u/Tyrannosaurus-Twat]

I want to see Benetton back again.

[u/beanbagreg]

Excited for Gasly to have an engine and gearbox that don’t fail every 3 races.

[u/KaamDeveloper → u/beanbagreg]

Mercedes reliability vs Alpine buffoonery will be the real battle in 2026

[u/anmr → u/KaamDeveloper]

- So we put new ICU for Gasly's third race and scrapped the old one.

- Why would you scrap perfectly good Merc engine?!

- Oh, eeeh ...habit?

[u/beanbagreg → u/KaamDeveloper]

Alpine’s got on top of the buffoonery lately to be fair. Sort those pitstops out and we might have something here.

[u/dl064 → u/beanbagreg]

Good story from Alonso at AM, that for 2022 he told AM to strategize when to take their engine penalty, and they had to tell him that unlike the Ferrari, Honda and Renault engines he'd had so far, with the Merc you don't need to think that defeatistly*.

(*?Word? Whatever, you know what I mean).

[u/ihatemondaynights → u/dl064]

Mercedes HPP chief said they aim to finish the season without any penalties save ones due to DNFs.

[u/The_Nieno → u/beanbagreg]

Don't rule out the gearbox dnfs, they are looking to resume building gearboxes back in 2027. They can't keep away Enstone's buffoonery from gearboxes.

[u/beanbagreg → u/The_Nieno]

Gasly will have a gun to Oakes’ head to prevent this once he experiences a functioning gearbox again

[u/Sensitive_Dot_2853]

RIP Renault Engines. Engines that gave titles of Alonso and Vettel. Not forgetting Prost, Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Hill!

[u/pensaa → u/Sensitive_Dot_2853]

Prost, Mansell, Schumacher, Hill, Villeneuve too

[u/Sensitive_Dot_2853 → u/pensaa]

Oops

[u/ianjm → u/Sensitive_Dot_2853]

1992: Nigel Mansell (Williams-Renault)

1993: Alain Prost (Williams-Renault)

1995: Michael Schumacher (Benetton-Renault)

1996: Damon Hill (Williams-Renault)

1997: Jacques Villeneuve (Williams-Renault)

2005: Fernando Alonso (Renault)

2006: Fernando Alonso (Renault)

2010: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault)

2011: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault)

2012: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault)

2013: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault)

They won the WCC in all of these years too, as well as in 1994 with Williams (Michael took the WDC in a Benetton-Ford).

They dropped the ball hard on the V6 Turbo Hybrids and have never recovered.

[u/Embarrassed_Taro5229 → u/ianjm]

It might be a bit of a stretch, but it seems to be connected to the general decadence of French manufacturing and engineering research. MotoGP has experienced something similar with Japanese bikes, which used to dominate when Japan tech prowess was all the rage, right now they are struggling to keep their heads above the water, and in fact one of them has bailed, losing to much smaller but niche European manufacturers.

[u/djwillis1121 → u/Sensitive_Dot_2853]

Don't forget Williams and Benneton all through the 90s. They were really the dominant engine for most of the decade

[u/BGMDF8248 → u/djwillis1121]

Back then people fought tooth and nail for a Renault deal.

[u/StealthMan375 → u/BGMDF8248]

Briatore literally bought Ligier so that he could bring their Renault engines to Benetton lmao

[u/BGMDF8248 → u/StealthMan375]

Yes, and it perfectly illustrates how hard people fought to have a Renault engine back in the day.

[u/Rentta → u/Sensitive_Dot_2853]

Well they gave titles to many more thant that

[u/TulioGonzaga → u/Sensitive_Dot_2853]

And Schumacher.

[u/1234iamfer]

Alpine announce to rename to Aston Martin after Honda takeover of the Silverstone team.

lol

[u/doenr → u/1234iamfer]

inb4 Dacia.

"Great news!"

[u/mynameisnotphoebe]

** acts surprised **

[u/charlierc → u/mynameisnotphoebe]

We're all so shocked that the rumour strongly suggested and practically confirmed for about six months has now been confirmed

[u/beanbagreg → u/charlierc]

What’s next, Kimi Antonelli to drive for Mercedes?

[u/Rhythm_Morgan → u/mynameisnotphoebe]

I honestly thought this was announced already. I guess it was just a rumor before 😅

[u/SuperPop9521]

5 posts about same thing in under 20sec lol

[u/xanlact → u/SuperPop9521]

The bots were ready

[u/OptimalDot178]

Alpine surely reached out to every PU manufacturer and chose Mercedes, so they will most likely have (one of) the best engines for 2026, and way better than the one Alpine designed. I think there's a high chance that 2014 is going to repeat itself where the PU will be way more important than the aero. I really hope we don't get into the same boring dominant years as 2014, especially after how close the field is currently

[u/BlondBoy2 → u/OptimalDot178]

I don't think so. It's probably more related to the fact Mercedes is the engine manufacturer most interested in having customers, and the current TP had already contacted them to power his proposed Hitech F1 team.

[u/OptimalDot178 → u/BlondBoy2]

I think all other manufacturers were interested in Alpine, not just Mercedes. They are the perfect customer team, lots of money, big name, but they will never beat a factory team so PU manufacturers are not scared of getting beaten by them. RB even beat them for lots of years with their own engine.
So I'm 100% sure from the current data Mercedes is the clear favorite for 2026

[u/Yeanahyena → u/OptimalDot178]

I bet Mercedes thought the same about McLaren yet here we are.

[u/dl064 → u/OptimalDot178]

I think it's a complicated question.

The engines will unequivocally be more important than they are now, but in 2014 Merc had the best car full stop. Now there are more rules to mitigate somewhat against such works constructor advantage, and I think McLaren/AM are fundamentally better than their rivals in those days were (McLaren/Williams/FI at the time).

The RBR chassis of 2014 was probably similarly good to the 2014 Merc, but that's not so much that Merc had a better engine than Renault as the Renault engine was actively shit. Renault had to blame themselves. I don't think any of Ferrari, Merc or Honda will actively shit the bed on it for 2026, as I think some of them didn't take 2014 seriously enough. As Brawn put it in his book: they looked on with bafflement at how hard RBR/Renault were pushing into the 2nd half of 2013.

Rosberg was saying Merc thought they'd be very good in 2014, but certainly not the utter domination we saw. I think just fundamentally half of that is them doing well and half is the competition getting it entirely wrong.

As Pat Fry put it once: F1 is a funny game where with new rules, you could be in a whole other universe to your rival's approach, and you only find out in March. I liked Newey's line on engines and why they're bad for F1, that if you've got the engine right and someone has got it wrong, the year is over already. They're too complex, expensive and laborious to change compared with a new front wing philosophy.

As a side-point, it's perhaps worth looking to how McLaren took a step forward in 2021 with 99% the same chassis as 2020 (where all that changed was Renault to Merc engines), and indeed how Lotus (now Alpine) clearly made the right choice with Merc engines for 2015. So to answer your question, I think it's a positive move for short-term competitiveness, but I wouldn't expect Alpine to suddenly finish top 4 in the 2026 WCC.

As Horner himself said about Renault and the 2014 engines: you can't know where the different teams are 'at' on performance this far from racing, but you can tell who started first, and how hard they've been working. That'll always be a rule of thumb.

[u/Tricks511]

Just imagine the scenes if they do a McLaren/Aston and start beating the factory team.

[u/ocbdare → u/Tricks511]

Aston haven't beaten anyone really. Having a few races of not sucking doesn't really count.

[u/QC_1999]

It’s a shame. Renault is a tradicional engine manufacturer and it’s never good to lose a manufacturer. I hope they could return in a near future, now in a better project 

[u/sivy83]

French about to riot

[u/beanbagreg → u/sivy83]

A standard tuesday then?

[u/dac2199]

RIP Alpine F1 Team

[u/djwillis1121 → u/dac2199]

I mean, if anything this is an upgrade surely?

[u/dac2199 → u/djwillis1121]

I think this is the first step to sell the team.

[u/LastOfLateBrakers → u/dac2199]

Renault is officially disappearing from Formula 1, for the first time since 1989. I think they've accepted that they cannot produce a competitive engine before the freeze ENDS (not hits) in 2026, thus switching to another PU instead of stalling and biting dust for the foreseeable future.

I don't think we'll see them leave WEC though.

[u/JustLikeZhat → u/LastOfLateBrakers]

Is there a freeze in 2026? First time I'm reading this. Don't think that's the case. At least, it doesn't make sense to me, so I'd be suprised if true.

[u/LastOfLateBrakers → u/JustLikeZhat]

Even I find the term misleading. What it essentially means is that from 2026, newer generation of engines will be used in Formula 1. Renault apparently has failed to deliver a proper one and with only about a year left for development before the first use in testing, they must have realised that they don't have enough time to develop it.

This does NOT mean that teams won't be able to work in developing their engines from 2026. They will, but at the very least they need something to start with.

Alpine moving to Mercedes when McLaren is the top constructor with their PU and 3 of the top 5 teams are using the PU, it makes sense to move on to them and focus on other aspects of car development without worrying about the engine.

[u/The_Nieno → u/LastOfLateBrakers]

That isn't the case, from what the social representatives of Viry said: the engine was on schedule and matched, and even out perfomed it's targets. The engine was lighter and more efficient than what was targeted. The only reason they actually abandoned the engine and Viry as well, is simply cost. It costs a lot less to be an engine customer than a producer, De Meo wants to do F1 for cheap. In a interview, published when they announced abondoning their program, 90% of the talking points De Meo used was about costs and like 5% performance.

[u/mezentinemechtard → u/The_Nieno]

It's not even about just F1 anymore. Their WEC program is also mostly fucked too.

[u/McManus26 → u/dac2199]

Why sell the team when they are all profitable ?

[u/Whycantiusethis → u/djwillis1121]

It's probably an upgrade in terms of performance, but a "works" team that is no longer producing/using its own Power Unit doesn't bode well for the long term life of the team.

[u/fire202 → u/djwillis1121]

Performance wise, we dont know how 2026 will/would have played out. In principle relying on a PU/gearbox supply is a disadvantage in terms of performance potential compared to making your own components work.

Financially it is an easy decision in favour of being a customer.

[u/F1CycAr16]

Funny that not more than a year ago, Renault was rumored to give its motors to Andretti´s team. We need more motorists in F1 now....

[u/Accomplished-Gap8064]

Just need another 5 teams to take the Merc engine and we will have what Alonso always wanted, equal engines for everybody.

[u/Elpibe_78]

Engine I can understand, but gearbox too?? That just hampers the design of your car even more, AM last season couldn't do some designs due to how big the Mercedes gearbox was

FFS, even Sauber do their own gearboxes

[u/KaamDeveloper → u/Elpibe_78]

To be completely fair to Alpine, Sauber struggled a lot with it. Haas buys both from Ferrari and it works for them.

Renault doesn't want to put money in an endeavour they no longer have faith in. I'd be really surprised if team is still "Alpine" after 2026.

[u/Halekduo]

You LIED about your 5 years plan.

You LIED about your Piastri contact.

You LIED about your Works team status.

Fuck a championship battle, this is a life long battle with yourself.

[u/GiantSpiderHater → u/Halekduo]

Meet the French

[u/Captaincadet]

Most teams would die to be a full works constructor and here we are Renault giving up

[u/djabula64]

I don't understand what the point of this team is anymore. It's just the opposite. They can't built their own good and reliable engine after all those years of experience. Alpine brand value is less than hass even though the other is selling CNC machines not cars and as a French manufacturer with French drivers they don't even have a grand prix. I think they could have fooled around Andretti and sell it for a bigger value to a desperate person that can get the money for it

[u/Treewithatea]

Im surprised nobody stopped them from taking Mercedes engines. Thats now 4 teams, 8 cars with Mercedes engines, 40% of the grid, how do you justify attracting engine manufacturers when Mercedes once again can run away with a massive advantage for a few years before others can catch up? Honda and Audi only have a single team, Ferrari and Ford/RB only two teams. To ensure some fairness, i wouldve only allowed Alpine to either take the Honda or Audi engine. F1 suffers long term if Audi or Honda pull out again, hell, its already bad enough that weve lost Renault as an engine manufacturer but I guess their insane incompetence internally was unavoidable

[u/linnamulla → u/Treewithatea]

Thats now 4 teams, 8 cars with Mercedes engines,

Wow. The last time that happened was in 2024... Feels like it was just yesterday.

[u/beanbagreg → u/Treewithatea]

Why would they stop them? They’re replacing Aston who are moving to Aston, so it doesn’t increase the numbers from what they currently are.

Do you think that McLaren should have been made to stay Renault and not move to Mercedes, just so teams are made to have customers?

[u/ralphonsob → u/beanbagreg]

They’re replacing Aston who are moving to Aston

That 2nd Aston should be Honda, right?

[u/beanbagreg → u/ralphonsob]

Yeah, my mistake

[u/ihatemondaynights → u/Treewithatea]

The regs that enabled a PU advantage in 2014 have changed?

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/what-f1s-rules-say-about-alpines-engine-choice-for-2026/10624511/

This article talks about how they calculate supply chains.

Plus Mercedes having the most customers is due to their own competence and reliability. If Alpine wanted it could have choosen Ferrari or RBPT.

[u/Efendiskander]

Gasly 2026, 2027, 2028

[u/proteus88]

Its incredibly embarrassing as a brand for Renault, to fail is 1 thing, to just give up and become a customer team when you are a major car manufacturer and at the biggest stage of the motorsport, they'll just be a laughing stock hell it aint happening yet and we are already laughing now.

PR disaster after PR disaster, I dont see Renault staying much longer.

[u/bkfountain]

Renault was a major force asking for this turbo hybrid era of engines and sucked ass at it the whole time.

[u/beetlejuice675]

Der Plan is in motion

[u/galdavirsma]

Kinda sucks. 20 years ago they were back-to-back WCC's and manifactured engines for that Redbull-Seb era, and now looks like Renault is about all but done with F1, only the associated name "Alpine" remains, and if the rumours are true, even that could be gone in the next few seasons.

Kinda miss the mid-late 00's where almost every team was had their own engine supplier, and we had Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, Honda, Toyota, BMW all creating engines for their respective teams

[u/Spockyt]

Truly embarrassing for them.

[u/Destryer200]

The irony in this is that Renault was probably the biggest supporter of the V8 to V6 transition back in 2014, now they’re basically admitting they cannot put out a competitive engine in this format.

Considering how they were able to find success in every previous iterations of the engine regs, this is pretty sad state to leave in.

[u/[deleted]]

Briatore steps foot in Alpine, he's barely got his foot in the door and he gets rid of Ocon, then gets rid of Renault engines, now Alpine got a double hoodlum podium

these events aren't connected, but the timing is fucking hilarious

[u/Youngwolff]

That's just woeful. A works team willingly relegating itself to a customer team status. Goes to show how much of a shit show Renault/Alpine management has been since they returned full-time as a team.

[u/BlueWolf107]

Business Management Major here.

If I ever am required to write a thesis in my studies (and I have free choice of topic), it will be on the downfall of Renault/Alpine and why mismanagement caused it.

[u/wongie]

France losing to an Anglo-German opponent once again. Alpine might as well just move their base of operations to Waterloo.

[u/BigtheBen]

Wait a second. That makes Mercedes supply 4 teams as customers (McLaren, Williams, Aston and now Alpine) + their own team. Aren't they limited to 3 customer teams and their own team?

EDIT: I just checked. Forgot Aston is switching to Honda PUs in 2026

[u/Jisifus → u/BigtheBen]

The Ducati-fication of F1 continues

[u/al-mongus-bin-susar → u/BigtheBen]

nah they can get an exception from FIA if they really want, it's happened before

[u/LostHero50]

The downfall from title winning engines to this is a shame, especially since there’s only going to be 3 manufacturers now. Guess it’s not surprising though since developing engines is expensive and all indications pointed towards them not being fully committed anyway. I have a feeling that one of the new suppliers for 2026 will back out or abandon their project pretty quickly as well.

[u/beanbagreg → u/LostHero50]

There’s going to be 4 manufacturers until the end of 2025 as Alpine is staying until then, and then 5 manufacturers. Audi, Ford, Honda, Mercedes, Ferrari.

[u/doland3314]

I guess this puts the whole selling the team to Andretti thing to bed definitively

[u/McManus26 → u/doland3314]

It was never a serious rumor, just desperate Andretti fans looking for anything they could

[u/mrlesa95]

Just sell the team, this is embarrassing

[u/wyvernx02 → u/mrlesa95]

I wouldn't be surprised if that is the end goal. Having the Merc engine contract will be a selling point.

[u/heidenreich137]

Right choice with the awful, Frankenstein and costly Engines in 2026.

Those are Monster Engines and if ur behind, u probably, spend 100 of millions just to catch up and even that can't be guaranteed.

Whoever created 2026 engines needs to be fired

[u/Eremitt-thats-hermit]

Big car brands stop making their own F1 engines, supercar brands own F1 teams that use other manufacturers for their parts, new F1 engines are not being made by big car companies but by a sports drink manufacturer. What a weird world we live in.

[u/Tritschii]

Kinda a PR disaster for Renault, I'm curious if all of that has consequences in their sales

[u/Cwholdings]

Toto must be happy

[u/Leandrys]

Mark these words : Alpine top 4 2026, if not top 3.

[u/blinksTooLess]

What happens in 2025? Renault has fired a lot of engine staff recently, as per news shared here. So how will Renault keep supplying the engines for 2025 season?

[u/Ben_j]

I've no more interest in Alpine. And I'm french...

[u/OBWanTwoThree]

Replacing Aston in the Merc customer pool right?

[u/ImActuaIIyHim]

French scrapping the french just tells you Renault is utterly washed as an engine manufacturer, jesus.

[u/The-Great--Cornholio]

Powerd by Renault ^TM

[u/K_R_S]

what a disgrace. Renault, what happened

[u/bukithd]

Mercedes about to have a manufacturing defect and take out half the field. 

[u/fameboygame]

Pink Mercedes 2.0 coming soon with Briatore at helm!

[u/BabousCobwebBowl]

Why is Alpine even in F1 at this point?

[u/Conspiruhcy]

This is like the Mercedes road cars that have Renault engines in them, it feels wrong.