Representatives of Renault’s Formula 1 engine staff at Viry-Chatillon have called for the French manufacturer to rethink plans for Alpine to become a Mercedes customer – suggesting the decision is a ‘betrayal.’
As part of an effort to improve its fortunes, the Alpine Formula 1 team is poised to commit to becoming a Mercedes customer team from 2026 onwards.
A final decision on the engine plan and the future of its Viry headquarters is expected to take place on 30 September, with a study having already been commissioned by Renault into transferring the focus of F1 personnel at the French factory on to new technology development.
But with current Renault engine staff already understood to have voiced dismay to bosses and Renault CEO Luca de Meo over the decision to abandon its F1 engine project, which originally began in 1977, representatives of its personnel have now gone public with their concerns.
A statement issued by the Social and Economic Council of Alpine employees in Viry-Chatillon (Conseil Social et Economique) sent to Autosport outlined that the technical promise already shown by its 2026 engine more than justified Renault continuing with the project.
It said: “The Group's management plans to stop the 2026 programme at Viry-Chatillon and opt for an engine supply, probably from Mercedes.
“The reason given is a significant direct saving, trading development costs of $120million for $17million in annual supply.”
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.”
In the lengthy document, the Social and Economic Council outlined how Viry had hit some aggressive development targets with the new engine – which it said had shown good potential during dyno testing.
“More than a hundred disruptive concepts were studied, nearly a third of which demonstrated significant performance on the test bench and should be introduced on the future Alpine engine: the AR26,” it said.
“The target was to start the first Alpine 2026 engine at the end of the first half of 2024, one and a half years after the genesis of the project.
“On 26 June 2024, the RE26A, the name given to the first 'factory' version of the AR26, carried out its first start-up on engine bench no. 6 at Viry-Chatillon, thus marking a success in terms of the targeted deadline.
“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.”
The statement said that the test engine was exceeding 400kW output during its first hours of running – which was close to the performance objective laid down for the first 2026 race. It was said to have a thermal efficiency of 48% and had suffered no major reliability problems.
It was also revealed that the engine was 12% shorter than the current power unit Alpine was using, which offered “significant room” for improved chassis integration. Furthermore, it was below the minimum weight laid down in the regulations, which meant Alpine could make use of ballast.
The statement 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.”
While Renault has promised to move current Viry F1 engine staff on to new projects, which could include hydrogen technology, the Council believed this made no sense.
“The site transformation plan, which should be definitively approved on 30 September 2024, consists of migrating resources to other projects led by Alpine Racing (Endurance, Formula E, customer competition, hydrogen combustion engine of a hypercar, etc.) already saturated with personnel, or to reclassify engineering on innovative projects, supposedly useful to the mass-produced industry, but not defined at this stage,” added the statement.
“Innovation in the automotive sector today focuses on the chemistry and industrialisation of batteries, 'software defined vehicles' and autonomous driving. The skills of Viry staff are not related to these subjects.”
Alpine has declined to comment on the matter, but it is understood that the Viry staff representatives have exercised their right to seek expertise on future projects being planned. It is understood this feedback will be delivered on 30 September.
Furthermore, no final decision has yet been made by Alpine about the transformation project at Viry.
