Famin explains why producing F1 engines no longer makes sense

Outgoing Alpine team boss Bruno Famin says Formula 1’s financial rules are behind rumours Renault is on the verge of pulling out of engine production for the sport.

At Spa it was confirmed that Famin would leave the team during the summer break. He would be replaced by Oliver Oakes, with Famin returning to other roles within Renault.

Famin previously headed up the company’s engine project at Viry, but the power unit has failed to live up to expectations in recent years, making it difficult for the Alpine team to keep up with its rivals.

Now it has emerged that Alpine is close to striking a deal to use Mercedes engines in the future, meaning Renault will no longer be an F1 engine manufacturer.

As he prepares to leave his current position, Famin explained to the media why continuing with the powertrain programme no longer makes sense for Renault.

“It’s true that the business model, to call it that, is a bit strange,” Famin told F1’s official channel last week. “The Concorde Agreement, the prize fund system, only benefits the teams.

“On the other hand, the FIA’s financial and sporting regulations impose on the power unit manufacturer the obligation to sell, at a fixed price, power units to teams that wish to have them.”

From 2026, new regulations will introduce a $130 million cost cap that aims to make the sport more attractive to new manufacturers such as Audi looking to enter Formula One.

However, Famin argues that financially it is more profitable to be a customer team like McLaren or Aston Martin than a works team like Mercedes or Ferrari.

“When you see the cost of developing a PU versus buying a PU, there is a huge difference,” he argued. “That huge difference is not compensated by any prize pool because the entire prize pool goes to the team.

“We’re not talking about efficiency, we’re talking about a huge difference in money,” he continued. “There’s no mystery to that difference because we know it’s official and public.

“The cost ceiling, which is the amount of money that polyurethane producers can spend, the price at which polyurethane is supplied and the price that a polyurethane producer must pay to sell polyurethane, is also public information.

“It’s something like 120 million euros in one hand, 17 in the other hand – you do the math. (Every) year, of course,” he added.

Famin admitted that Renault’s current power unit has been less powerful since the introduction of turbocharged V6 hybrid regulations and a development freeze at the end of 2021, which has prevented Renault from making up the loss.

“Renault completely missed, but now we are 10 to 15 kilowatts less,” he said. “The power unit has an average of two tenths of a lap time. On average, because it depends on the track, of course.”

Famin said this meant they had to rush to find an extra second in the car and chassis design, but that also proved problematic. “We can’t hide behind the power unit,” he admitted.

“There are certain points where we have no leverage, for example when it comes to the engine, we know we are in a freeze phase and we cannot upgrade the hardware.

“But the car has other problems,” he admitted. “Lack of grip, lack of downforce, too much drag, too little power. We had to fix everything.

We also had to reduce the weight a bit. At the beginning of the season we were a bit overweight,” he noted. “Then we had to re-understand the car and make some small improvements or adjustments to the set-up to really make the car work a bit better.”

Despite the team’s recent management shake-up and rumours of the end of its engine programme, Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo insists Alpine is not for sale.

Andretti Global and Chinese automotive giant Geely are among the candidates vying for a place on the current Formula 1 grid.

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