Why Alpine’s 2026 power unit decision gives Mercedes ‘massive’ advantage over F1 rivals Ferrari

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Alpine has officially confirmed that it will be entering a technical partnership with Mercedes in 2026, after parent company Renault shut down its engine plant.

The deal will see the French team run Mercedes power units and gearboxes until at least 2030, with Renault set to continue to develop their engines until the end of 2025.

CEO Luca de Meo said Renault needed to ‘rethink’ it’s F1 project, amid loses within the car division that have plagued them since COVID. This effectively meant cuts needed to be made and an F1 engine project can be a very costly venture, despite hostility from Alpine staff over the planned closure.

Romain Grosjean branded Renault’s closure ‘sad’ having raced with them in 2009, then latterly between the 2012 and 2015 seasons under their Lotus guise.

It will be the second time in 10 years that the Enstone-based F1 team has gone with Mercedes power, having briefly used it in 2015 before the Renault takeover.

Discussing the move on the Pit Talk podcast, journalist Matt Coch believes Ferrari and Audi made a decision that was ‘baffling’ by not trying to negotiate a deal with Alpine.

Mercedes will have ‘massive competitive advantage’ with Alpine 2026 deal

One of the most important aspects of the hybrid engine rules introduced to the 2014 season was customer teams, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault all benefitting from the extra data by having more teams run their power units on track.

With the 2026 F1 season set to see a radical change to the power units, only Red Bull and Mercedes are set to be suppliers to other teams while Ferrari, Audi and Honda will only supply their works outfits and Aston Martin respectively.

Coch believes Ferrari and Audi have missed out on not securing a customer team, and that it is handing the advantage over to Mercedes.

“I’m baffled as to why the likes of Ferrari or Audi or any of the other power unit manufacturers weren’t fighting tooth and nail to get that supply deal with Alpine. We’re going into 2026 and all the regulation cycle data is going to be important,” said Coch.

Mercedes has more regulation data than any other manufacturer, particularly than the likes of Honda who is going to have one team, Ford is going to have one team, Ferrari won’t have that many data points, Mercedes is going to have a massive competitive advantage and having someone pay for the privilege. That’s just brilliant business.”

Mercedes the most successful power unit supplier of hybrid era

Since the switch to hybrid power in 2014, Mercedes has been the most successful engine supplier out of the four main brands.

The team had an early advantage having started work on their hybrid power unit as early as 2011, while also having a significant political leverage in shaping the regulations in their favour.

It took Ferrari three seasons before they could catch up and mount a credible title challenge, while Honda only started winning with Red Bull in the 2020 season after a troubled start with McLaren in 2015.

Mercedes still holds the record for most wins, while Renault has only won four Grands Prix as an engine supplier since the 2014 season.