As Alpine continues to have another disappointing season, things continue to be fractured behind the scenes.
As Bruno Famin announced his departure at Team Principal, to be replaced by Oliver Oakes, more importantly, the company called it quits with its F1 engine division in Viry-Châtillon, just on the outskirts of Paris, after 2026.
As Alpine has committed to the Mercedes engine from 2026 onwards, they will be based out of Enstone, meaning that there will be no part of France left in this French team, which has 49 years of history as an engine supplier in Formula One, including those on cars which have won 12 World Championships.
To say the least, workers are devastated. Some are threatening to strike, saying to L’Equipe that “potentially we just won’t start the cars”, and some are worried about the identity of France in motorsport.
“We didn’t see it coming,” said Karine Dubreucq, union member at the Viry Chatillon site. “It’s a stab in the back, a betrayal. We’ve developed engines here that were 12-time F1 champions [on ones] and now we can’t anymore?”
In the factory, they are convinced that the engine in development will be able to offer the expected performance, and be close to the benchmark required.
“We think that (the engine) will be equivalent to that of Mercedes” assures an engine manufacturer of the group. “At worst, there will be 15 HP of difference. We even redesigned the turbo.”
Another employee said: “If we stop here, we will never hear of an F1 Renault engine again”. Telling words from those who claim to have seen the famous tricolore vanish from this French team.
Otherwise, some people are pinning this squarely on management, such as Pierre Chauty, former legal manager at Alpine, as he said in a post on LinkedIn, even going so far as to tag those who are to blame in his opinion.
“This situation is a direct result of the disastrous leadership of Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault Group. De Meo’s failure to recognize and rectify the mistakes made by Laurent Rossi for over two and a half years is inexcusable. De Meo’s lack of acknowledgment of his own failures and his poor judgment in appointing Rossi have significantly harmed Alpine and the entire Renault Group. Moreover, De Meo did not even have the courage to announce the end of F1 engine production himself, reflecting his cowardice and avoidance of responsibility.”
“In my final months at Alpine, I myself have raised numerous ethical concerns and questioned the direction we were headed. I even considered going to the media, but at the time, no one seemed to care. Looking back, I regret not taking more decisive action, which might have brought more scrutiny to the mismanagement and possibly prevented some of these missteps, although I am cynical enough to believe that no one would have really cared and the only positive effect would have been on my ego.”
Time will tell whether this venture plays out on track, but for those French employees, they are certainly at their wits’ end.
