Alpine’s ‘humiliating admission’ about their future before expected Mercedes engine announcement

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Alpine has finally confirmed its plans to shut down its Formula 1 engine operation and reallocate a lot of its staff to a new area of the business suited to its road car operations.

Talk of parent company Renault deciding to shut down their Viry Chatillon operation was rumoured for a while in the F1 paddock, given the team wanted to cut its losses ahead of the planned 2026 regulation changes.

Alpine had begun work on developing its power unit for 2026 and had seen positive results, but the project was deemed too cost-prohibitive.

Now there will be a transformation project underway which will see its staff offloaded to ‘Hypertech Alpine’ which will focus on Renault’s electrification technology and upcoming road cars.

It comes after employees protested the planned closure at the recent Italian Grand Prix, which was reportedly when the deal was struck between Alpine and Mercedes to supply engines from 2026.

According to journalist Lawrence Edmundson on the Unlapped podcast, the switch to Mercedes engines was ’embarrassing’ for Alpine not least for the ramifications it could have in the future.

Alpine switch to Mercedes engines ’embarrassing’ for Renault

Although manufacturers in F1 have run under different engine suppliers before, Aston Martin currently uses Mercedes engines and is set to switch to Honda in 2026, the closure of the Renault operation is a stark admission for Alpine.

Alpine will reportedly use Mercedes engines for a second time in the hybrid era, having previously used them under their Lotus guise in 2015.

“It really just shows you kind of how far that team has fallen, because to go not just from Renault, you’ve then rebranded yourself to Alpine,” said Edmundson.

“It was meant to be this whole big thing of Alpine is now the great big brand. We’re now going to go and take Mercedes engines. It’s such a humiliating admission that ‘We can’t build engines as well as effectively a rival’ in the automotive industry.”

New F1 team could replace Alpine in the future

When the FIA opened up their F1 team tender process in 2023 there were six prospective entries, including Andretti, Hietech, and Asia-based US-funded team called ‘LKYSUNZ’.

Co-founder Benjamin Duran was previously involved with another team entry in 2019 called Project Panthera Team Asia, which aimed to establish the first team outside of the UK and Europe.

READ MORE: Oliver Oakes claims Alpine have ‘performance to come’ as late season upgrades arrive

LKYSUNZ had shown interest in buying Alpine from Renault and sent a second investment proposal to senior management in August.

The contents reportedly kept a promise to fund the Renault F1 engine programme while also being open to using the Alpine name in some capacity.