Alpine claims its Renault engines have a power deficiency compared to rival PU manufacturers, which has tentatively started up a conversation about power unit equalisation for Alpine’s benefit.
The issue is slated to be discussed in more detail during this Friday’s F1 Commission meeting ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Photo credit: BTW Alpine F1 Team
Formula 1’s power unit freeze came into effect in 2022, preventing teams from introducing any PU upgrades other than those that improve reliability. The existing power unit regulations are due to expire after the 2025 season, as F1 moves to introduce a completely new generation of power units in 2026.
“All the teams do the same analysis and the FIA do the same analysis and we’re significantly down,” said Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer.
“Everybody is allowed to fix their reliability issues and hidden in reliability issues can sometimes be power upgrades, depends on what reliability you’re fixing.
“There’s a lot of stuff that can be disguised as reliability and then you increase the power.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has stated that he is open to discussions regarding engine equalisation.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
“It is about seeing what are the deficits. The FIA have all of the data and they should present exactly what the differences are.
“I think that would be fascinating for everybody to see, and I think that if there is a deficit under homologation, then it’s something that we should be sensible about—otherwise, you’re locked in for two years.
“I wouldn’t be averse to a sensible discussion.”
As a non-works team, Red Bull has experienced its own fair share of PU-related ups and downs—in fact, the latest engine freeze was introduced to ease their separation from Honda.
“I am glad Christian said that because, if you look back, the reason the engines were frozen was because Honda was pulling out at that time and Red Bull didn’t have an engine department to continue developing,” Szafnauer said.
“The reason we all agreed was for the benefit of Red Bull, so it is nice that Christian recognises that.
“And, at the time of the arrangement, there was also an agreement among the engine manufacturers that if anybody fell out by 1% then there would be good faith discussions to bring that parity back.”
Szafnauer recalled a similar situation in 2007 when performance-based upgrades passed under the guise of reliability fixes. He will be hoping for similar leeway now, which would allow Alpine to catch up.
“I remember in 2007 when we froze the V8s, I was the one who received every request from other teams for Honda. They came to me first, and all the requests back then were for cost-saving and reliability.
“I’d pass them on to the correct engineers. But there is a lot of stuff that can be disguised as reliability and then you increase the power.”
