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Renault looks increasingly likely to drop its works Formula 1 engine as its Alpine team focuses on closing a Mercedes customer deal.
Ex-Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore was appointed executive advisor for F1 to company CEO Luca de Meo last month and has made it a priority to re-evaluate its engine strategy.
It quickly emerged Renault could abandon its own works engine - which has been uncompetitive throughout the V6 turbo-hybrid era - and pursue being a customer instead, with Mercedes the preferred option.
The rationale is Renault and Alpine are wasting money on an unsuccessful engine when the more efficient and competitive choice is to take a supply from someone else, as McLaren is proving with Mercedes power that a customer team can be a frontrunner in the V6 turbo-hybrid era.
No official announcement is expected until after F1’s August summer break because of the protracted timeline for agreeing all the details of a Mercedes deal, and concluding all the associated discussions around shutting down the F1 engine that is designed and built in Alpine’s Viry-Chatillon facility in France.
However, The Race understands that steps are being taken with that outcome in mind.
While Briatore has been gung-ho with his pursuit of the Mercedes deal, Renault needs to seriously evaluate the consequences of abandoning its F1 engine programme. That means that, at least officially, no final decision has been made or communicated internally.
It is understood that a transformation of the Viry facility is being formally explored, with a study to determine how personnel and resources could be redirected to benefit the Alpine brand. The priority will be to ensure that nobody is at risk of losing their job.
For Alpine, the human and technical resources at Viry can be redeployed for various upcoming hydrogen and electric technology projects, and there are other Renault-backed motorsport projects there as well - primarily the engine for the Alpine World Endurance Championship Hypercar programme, in partnership with Mecachrome, and the Nissan Formula E powertrain.
It has been reported by the Motorsport Network that this could all be concluded in time for Alpine to have a Mercedes engine in 2025, but this is thought to be unlikely, not least because of the significant undertaking it would be to accommodate the Mercedes engine and associated components in a car designed around something else.
The same story has indicated that the nature of the supply will be the same as Aston Martin’s, and therefore include a gearbox and rear suspension - which will have consequences for Alpine’s chassis base at Enstone, given it currently produces those components itself.
Going in the customer direction sooner or later, though, means abandoning the 2026 F1 engine that has been under development at Viry for a long time already, and that Alpine team boss Bruno Famin had insisted last month he was “quite happy” with.
“We have quite high-level targets,” Famin said at June’s Spanish Grand Prix, the first race after Briatore’s arrival had been confirmed and speculation about the engine project emerged.
“For the time being we are optimistic in our ability to reach that target.
“People are very focused now, since a lot of months, on this target. And we are all pushing to reach it.”
Alpine has had no choice but to continue this development while awaiting a final decision and formalising the details of its new strategy, and switching to being a customer is not necessarily an admission that the 2026 engine was set to be another disappointment - just that it is not in Renault's best interests to have a fully-fledged works team anymore.
It reflects a desire to make the F1 programme as cost-effective and successful as possible, even if that means relinquishing the kind of control and potential that most teams yearn for.
Many in F1 still believe that there is a long-term intention to offload the team given decoupling it from Viry and having a high-quality engine supply with Mercedes does make it easier to sell eventually.
However, the short-term priority for Renault and Alpine is obviously to conclude its new engine strategy - as it now looks like a matter of when, rather than if, that will happen.
