Left in limbo by their parent company, the employees of Renault's under-threat Formula 1 engine programme are making their voices heard at the Italian Grand Prix.
Renault chief Luca de Meo is currently working through plans to abandon the brand's long-time F1 engine programme in France's Viry-Chatillon and switch to Mercedes customer engines for its Alpine-branded works team instead.
If confirmed, the decision would mean the end of a 47-year long era of Renault engines roaring on the F1 grid. Since 1979, its involvement resulted in 178 grand prix wins – including nine under the TAG Heuer name – as the third most-successful engine manufacturer in F1 history, having powered the likes of Williams, Benetton and Red Bull since the 90s.
In late July, staff at Renault’s factories at Viry-Chatillon and Enstone were informed of an evaluation study to plot a "transformation project" for its engine division away from its current F1 activities, and ever since the 334 employees of the engine division in France have been anxiously awaiting their future course, disagreeing with any decision that takes Viry away from F1.
To make their voices heard to the wider public, 100 staff members – who are part of the company's Social and Economic Council (CSE) – travelled to the Italian Grand Prix and unfurled banners on two parts of Monza's main-straight grandstands.
The CSE announced “a large majority” of Renault’s engine staff at Viry-Chatillon would also go on strike simultaneously and express its discontent “in a respectful but determined atmosphere”.
At the start of FP1, the two groups of 50 employees all stood up to display their banners, but nevertheless applauded both Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly as they headed out on track.
A deadline on the decision looms on 30 September and the staff involved are hoping it is not too late for De Meo to have a change of heart and continue Viry's long-standing F1 legacy.
"The aim of coming today is to be heard," Clement Gamberoni, an engineer managing the squad's turbocharger department at Viry, tells Motorsport.com. "We have the feeling that we are not heard enough and are not putting our voice out publicly.
"We are passionate people. We are very proud of being in F1 and of having the car with our engine running on the track.
"But what we want is not to be against anything. We want to be with. And we want to bring arguments to change our boss' mind. And if it's not heard until the 30th of September, then we want to bring also solutions.
"We are fully supporting the engine for 2026, the Alpine project in all its forms. But we think that Viry has a real purpose with F1. And without F1, Viry has no purpose."
Messaging on the banners urges Renault to "save 50 years of French Formula 1" involvement and lists all the world championships won by a Renault engine, all 12 between 1992 and 2013.
But with a part of the blame for Alpine's lack of performance swung at its current power units, that last world title having come 11 years ago is part of the reason why De Meo is looking to do things differently. In the meantime there are plenty of rumours swirling about the state of Alpine's crucial 2026 engines as Renault tries to justify the investment in an in-house programme when a Mercedes supply is on the table.
But Gamberoni is adamant that Renault's 2026 power units are on the right track and that it would be unfair to pull the plug now, just 18 months before their introduction.
"The topic of today is that Luca De Meo can maybe change his mind to understand the arguments that we have, see the proof that we can have already on the engine running on the dyno for 2026," he pleads.
"It's not just words. There are facts, engines running with the performance. We have people around us who know what the other teams are doing, even not in detail, but we know that we are technologically disruptive with the engine, and we want to bring that to the track because I think it can be one of the best or the best."
"We have taken risks and we have delivered. We have a maturity that we did not have 10 years ago and we have [had] that continuity of work in F1 since the hybrid era. And now we are at a level where we know we can deliver.
"And we have equal weapons now with the cost cap, we play the same game with the same rules, and that's also the first time we can."
But Viry-Chatillon is more than a production facility for a batch of F1 engines. It is part of the fabric of France's automotive industry and racing heritage, fabric that Viry feels is going to be ripped to shreds even if Renault has promised to redeploy the facility and its entire staff on other non-F1-related projects.
"We are aware of the statements from Renault's top management that there'll be no loss of jobs for the people at Viry," Gamberoni acknowledges. "But there are two sides of it. There is also one side where we have a lot of contractors working at Viry.
"If a decision is made by 30 September, they will not have a job by the end of the year, and it means like, 200 people. And also all our network of suppliers who are working in F1 will have a lot of loss of projects, parts, studies and so on.
"And also we do believe in Viry's involvement in F1, because F1 brings competencies, technologies - means attractiveness – and also it keeps us at the top every day. Because we have competitors who never sleep, we need to be at the top to be able to fight in Formula 1.
"If we want to do other projects for the Alpine brand as well, we can do them. But we have to do them with F1."
Gamberoni and his colleagues appeared in good spirits as they followed Alpine's proceedings at Monza in free practice, but admitted uncertainty over their crown jewel programme had hit morale at the plant hard in recent weeks.
"We had the announcement [of Renault exploring alternative options] at the end of July, then there was a shutdown," he explained. "People are little bit down, I won't say that we are working full capacity right now, because the social environment is quite tricky at Viry.
"We are passionate people, and saying that our engine will not run on the F1 grid in 2026 is really difficult. But still, people are working because they want to see the results of the hard work they have done."
Additional reporting by Alex Kalinauckas
