Alpine engine employees at Viry-Chatillon are unhappy with Renault’s decision to stop its F1 2026 engine programme.
Monday saw the Renault Group officially announce its plans to stop its F1 2026 engine programme. Instead, the French manufacturers will transform the manufacturing facility at Viry-Chatillon into a state-of-the-art engineering hub for the Group.
The deadline for the negotiations between the Renault Group and the employees at Viry-Chatillon was on 30th September. The transformation project was first revealed by former Alpine F1 team boss Bruno Famin.
The plan from Famin at the Belgian Grand Prix was to step away from his F1 responsibilities to take charge of the transformation fo the factory. The sacrifice was to stop the F1 engine manufacturing activities – the staff being put to work on other arwas of technology on behalf of the Renault Group.
A meeting took place with Renault Group CEO Luca De Meo on 20th September. This led to the satff representative council – named the Comite Social et Economique (CSE) – outlining their dismay at seeing the likely possibility of the F1 engine programme ending. The staff at the factory said that the engine was hittinb current performance targets.
However, the Renault Group confirmed its intentions to transform the Viry site with a press release on 30th September. The press release confirmed its intention to stop the F1 engine activities by the end of the 2025 season.
Viry-Chatillon employees respond
The staff at Viry have responded in dismay to the decision made by the Renault Group. The employees say that the announcement has been met with the “unanimous, unfavourable opinion of the Alpine Racing Works Council”.
“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,” a statement read 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 management 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.”
What next for Alpine?
With the decision to halt its F1 engine programme for 2026, Renault will not be an engine supplier in 2026. Therefore, Alpine will become a customer team rather than a works team from 2026 onwards.
It is heavily rumoured that Mercedes will become the engine supplier of Alpine. The Mercedes engine will have its fifth team on the grid, following Mercedes, McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams.
The decision brings and end to a nearly 50 years of history following Renault’s decision to enter F1 in 1977. Since then, the French manufacturers produced F1 engines continuously other than in 1987-88 and a short break from 1998-2000.
Renault is one of the most successful engine suppliers in F1. The engine supplier has won a total of 10 constructors’ titles and nine drivers’ championships. The French manufacturer have won with Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, and the Williams, Benetton and Red Bull teams.
Renault’s own team also won the drivers’ and constructors’ championships with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.
However, a recent decline in performance has happened with Renault engines, starting from the start of hybrid power-units in 2014.
Alpine won the 2021 Hungarain Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon, and finished fourth in the world championship in 2020 and 2022, and fifth in 2021.
However, last year they dropped to sixth and in 2024 they are ninth with six race remaining.
Feature Image Credit: Rudy Carezzevoli via Getty Images