In a bid to better the struggling French teams fortunes, talks are reportedly underway internally at Alpine to move away from Renault works power unit supply in Formula 1.
With Alpine suffering a disappointing start to the 2024 season, currently 8th in the F1 constructors standings with a lowly 5 points, discussions have reportedly been taking place within the team to plan for the future. Given the team’s difficult run of form and lack of consistency in recent years, partly due to an under-performing Renault power unit, a plan to convert Alpine to a customer team in F1 is being evaluated.
As reported by Motorsport.com, senior management of both Renault and Alpine have discussed the notion, with Alpine team principal Bruno Famin allegedly holding talks with rivals in order to assess the viability of other options.
A move to a customer supplied power unit would free up resources in Viry-Chatillon, the headquarters of Renault Sport Racing where the marque’s Formula 1 power units have been developed since the 1970s.
It has been reported that a supply of Red Bull power units, purpose built by RBPT from 2026, is the preferred option from Alpine, although comments made by team principal Christian Horner suggest the task of supplying a third team outside of the Red Bull family in 2026 may place too much strain on the budding manufacturer.
“I think we need to establish ourselves first.” Horner explained. “We don’t want to overstretch ourselves. I think already supplying two teams in ’26, that is probably even slightly beyond optimum in year one, but it just gives us the capacity and capability for further down the line. So I think first of all, we need to firmly establish ourselves and then we have the capability to take more on from there.”
Beyond Red Bull, the next most likely supplier for Renault to approach would be Mercedes. Mercedes have established themselves as building strong and reliable power units in current regulations, both for their works team as well as customer teams McLaren and Aston Martin.
With an existing partnership between parent companies Daimler AG and the Renault-Nissan alliance seeing Renault supply road car engines for smaller models of Mercedes road cars, a partnership within Formula 1 could flourish, with existing customer Aston Martin jumping ship to Honda for the 2026 season.
While decisions are not yet made for the future of Alpine in Formula 1, should the team decide to continue as a customer team, it is guaranteed to be supplied a power unit by Formula 1’s regulations, which would have an existing manufacturer supply the team should they fail to reach an agreement independently.
