‘Invisible’ Alpine ‘put ourselves to shame’ in blunt Renault CEO engine ax verdict

Renault CEO Luca de Meo gave a very frank assessment of the Alpine F1 team predicament, claiming “something needed to be done”, as the engine division took the bullet.

Alpine F1 has seen vast personnel changes over the last year, as the team looks to climb back up the pecking order. However, progress is taking time, with Alpine sat P9 in the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship standings and only six rounds of the season remain.

Alpine became ‘invisible’ and ‘put ourselves to shame’

The regulations are set to remain stable for F1 2025, before a major overhaul for F1 2026 when new chassis and power units will arrive.

However, the F1 2026 power unit creation which Renault had been working on will not make it to the grid, Renault opting to pull the plug despite fierce resistance from their Viry engine base.

Viry-Chatillon will now be transformed into a state-of-the-art engineering hub for Groupe Renault, de Meo defending this decision which “saddens” him, yet was one which – as he quite brutally expressed – was required.

“It is a very emotional subject, also for me,” De Meo told L’Équipe. “It saddens me a lot, but this is the result of months of observation.

“In my work, however, I cannot think like a fan. I am a manager. I head a listed company. Unfortunately, that means I have to rethink the Formula One project in order to win.

“So then you have to start looking at what you can change in the short term.

“The team has become invisible in recent years. Two more years like this and the whole project was out of control. We have been in decline for three seasons. Something really needed to be done about that. And fortunately, most fans end up coming for the race team, not the engine.

“Alpine is in a slum. My shareholders see that too, the team is not making money. With P16 and P17, we just put ourselves to shame. The famous slogan ‘the marketing will pay it all back’ doesn’t ring true either.”

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The Viry staff representative council, named the Comite Social et Economique (CSE), made its displeasure clear on the announcement that the plug had been pulled on the F1 2026 PU.

“All the staff representatives, representing the voice of the employees and a majority of the stakeholders, regret and deplore the decision to stop using F1 engines in 2026,” read a statement issued to PlanetF1.com by the CSE.

“This choice has been endorsed by the (Renault) Group, which wishes to reduce the financial risk associated with F1, even though no serious study has been carried out to assess the impact on future sales and the prestige of the brand.

“The Group has ruled out partnership solutions, even though they would have made it possible to meet several objectives: maintaining an F1 business, reducing development and operating costs, retaining all the skills, and the possibility of taking a RE26 engine that has already been largely developed and is promising until the 2026 season.

“The content, resources and sustainability of the new projects that manage wishes to bring to Viry are still largely unclear.

“The communicated size of the F1 monitoring unit (staff and budget) still seems too small, and calls into question Alpine’s potential return as an engine manufacturer.

“The history of the Viry site shows that decisions to the contrary have often been taken, and demonstrates the importance to maintain highly qualified skills for the future in order to leave the door open to a return to F1 when the regulations and the shareholder’s financial situation make it more attractive.”

PlanetF1.com understands that the CSE’s next step will be to try to gain political support from the French government.

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