Renault F1 engine staff have urged the company not to proceed with plans to stop building its own engines in favour of a Mercedes customer deal, saying such a move would be “betraying” the company’s legacy.
Alpine, the name Renault rebranded its team to in 2021, looks set to stop producing engines at its Viry-Chatillon factory after years of uncompetitive results in F1.
A final decision is set to be made on Sept. 30 but it looks more likely than not the team will confirm a Mercedes deal.
Employees at Viry have hit out at that outcome — a statement sent to ESPN by the Social and Economic Council of Alpine employees in Viry-Chatillon (Conseil Social et Economique) criticised Renault CEO Luca De Meo.
The statement said: “Mr De Meo assured us that the soul of the Alpine brand should be nourished by its roots and that there was no question of severing them.
“He told us that money was not an issue and that only innovation matters. We fail to understand what justifies dismantling the elite entity that is the Viry-Châtillon factory and betraying its legacy and DNA by implanting a Mercedes heart into our Alpine F1. The announcement of the end of the development and production of French Power Units for Formula 1 is a nonsense.
“We cannot accept that Alpine and the Renault Group tarnish their images, which is why we urge Mr. De Meo and his board of directors to reverse this decision.
It added: “We do not understand what justifies killing this elite entity that is the Viry-Chatillon site and betraying its legend and its DNA by grafting a Mercedes heart into our F1 Alpine [car]
“The announcement of the end of the development and production of French power units for Formula 1 is incomprehensible.
“We cannot accept that Alpine and the Renault Group damage their images, which is why we ask Mr. De Meo and his board of directors to renounce this decision.”
A customer deal would be significantly cheaper for Alpine — the statement said it would be “a significant direct saving, trading development costs of $120 million for $17 million in annual supply.”
But the Viry factory is convinced that Renault’s 2026 engine project is loaded with potential.
New rules set to come into force for that season are heavily focused on the engine and are likely to be a key performance differentiator.
The feeling at Viry has been that early tests of the project have been encouraging.
The statement said “On this first engine, almost a third of the performance concepts, previously validated on the system bench, are still absent, planned for introduction before the end of 2024. However, the first test results are promising.
Viry also argued that the majority of Alpine’s performance deficit over recent seasons has come from the car development, which is carried out at the team’s UK factory at Enstone, rather than from the engines produced in France.
“Since 2022, the deficit attributed to the power unit accounts for 20% of the car’s total shortfall, with the remainder due to the Enstone chassis, which struggles to solidify its structure amid successive changes in direction,” it said.
Of the current engine, it added: “The RE26A is seen by all the Viry-Chatillon teams as a great success, a well-born engine with a clear potential, a year and a half from the first race, to raise the ambitions of Alpine F1 team.”
Source: www.espn.com