What senior Alpine figures are now doing at Enstone after Renault F1 engine axe

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Alpine is set to undergo a big change in 2026 when they ditch their in-house engine supply for a rival team on the grid.

It comes after parent company Renault decided to axe the Alpine Formula 1 engine programme due to rising costs, with staff in their Viry Chatillon plant in France being reallocated to other road car projects.

Chief executive Luca de Meo said he was ‘saddened’ by the closure of the project, after hostility from the staff at Alpine who protested its closure at the recent Italian Grand Prix.

Renault planned to produce a power unit for the 2026 season after being named as one of the main power unit suppliers by the FIA, but that will no longer go ahead.

With the news that they will be switching to a customer team for 2026, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm has revealed what senior Alpine figures are now doing at the team on The Race podcast.

Alpine not getting complacent about competitive order after ditching engine

Alpine completely redesigned their car for the 2024 season in a bid to generate more opportunities to add developments throughout the season, after hitting a performance ceiling with their 2023 challenger.

Even though the engine is down on power compared to everyone else by around 20bhp, the team is not tricked into thinking that a new power unit supply will solve their problems.

“What they are doing at Enstone is, crucially, not just assuming that if they get rid of that troublesome Alpine engine and put a Mercedes in they are suddenly going to be a top three team. They are not making that mistake and I think that’s really important,” said Mitchell-Malm.

“I’m getting the impression that what they are saving on the engine programme, some of it will be redirected in Enstone’s facilities.”

Alpine makes ‘humiliating’ admission with future engine

It is expected that Alpine will switch to Mercedes engines for the 2026 season, although some have criticised the move for effectively being an admission over their current engines.

Not only is it a loss of decades worth of history in F1, which French driver Romain Grosjean labelled ‘sad’ on social media, but Alpine has admitted defeat before even competing.

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

This has been labelled ‘humiliating’ for Alpine as they will be running with a direct rival in the car market engines.

It will also be the second time that Alpine will use Mercedes engines, having previously used them at Team Enstone in 2015 under their Lotus guise before it was sold back to Renault.