If you had told any Formula 1 fan at the start of 2024 that by the end of the season Alpine would have a double podium and finish sixth in the constructors’ championship, you would probably have been met by some very confused looks.
But from the Brazilian Grand Prix, things started to look up for the Enstone team, after a chaotic rain-filled race saw Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finish second and third, the first double-podium for the squad under the Alpine name.
At the start of the campaign, Alpine was a consistent backmarker and remained without a point until round six in Miami when Ocon finished 10th. By the summer break, the team had only scored 11 points, with Ocon taking five and Gasly the remaining six.
Alpine’s executive technical director David Sanchez told Autosport that the car had been overweight and the team had struggled aerodynamically, saying: “The chassis and the weight of the car were one issue, and the aerodynamic characteristics were another issue.”
But the team worked hard to fix these errors, gradually improving before that phenomenal result in Brazil where Alpine claimed 35 points. During the final few races of the season, the French outfit took a further 16 points to solidify sixth in the championship ahead of rivals Haas.
Going into 2025, Alpine has changed its driver line-up, promoting reserve driver Jack Doohan to a race seat alongside Gasly as Ocon has joined Haas. Doohan made his F1 debut at the Abu Dhabi GP, qualifying 17th and finishing 15th, to gain vital early experience before his full, rookie campaign.
Alpine has also invested heavily in its 2025 reserve driver line-up, recruiting Paul Aron, Ryo Hirakawa and Franco Colapinto. With a strong squad on the sidelines, including Colapinto who impressed with his performances during the latter half of 2024 for Williams, the team is determined to improve on its recent results.
But in the long term, Alpine will take a huge step in its F1 journey, switching from a Renault power unit to Mercedes in 2026 as the parent company has shut down its own F1 engine programme.
In recent years, Red Bull and McLaren both made the move to different engine suppliers - Red Bull taking on Honda power units in 2019, while McLaren ended disappointing years with the Japanese marque and Renault before a successful partnership with Mercedes. Since both teams switched to their current deal, they have won the constructors’ title (Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, McLaren in 2024) and Red Bull owe some of its dominance to its engine power.
This does not necessarily mean that just because Alpine is changing engine providers, it will be taking championship after championship. But the 2026 regulation changes look as though they could favour teams with Mercedes engines if noises from the German manufacturer are to be believed.
This is also not to forget that McLaren outperformed its provider Mercedes in 2024, placing top of the constructors championship, 198 points ahead of the fourth-placed Silver Arrows.
Alpine is also not alone in its engine change for 2026, with Aston Martin, Red Bull and Sauber all making a switch. Aston Martin will adopt the Honda engine, which Red Bull will drop and swap to Ford and Red Bull Powertrains, while Sauber will morph into the Audi F1 Team with its own power unit.
How each of these teams will fare in 2026 is yet to be seen. But Alpine would not have made the switch to Mercedes if it did not feel it would be beneficial in the long run, especially given its own programme into the new engine rules which has since been scrapped.
And with new team principal Oliver Oakes at the helm, the team will be driven to make the most of this new partnership to aid its progress as much as possible.
Alpine has had a turbulent managerial history, with three different team principals since the start of 2023. It was announced that Otmar Szafnauer would depart the team at that year’s Belgian GP, only for history to repeat itself at Spa a year later with replacement Bruno Famin.
But Oakes is confident he is the right man for the role, telling Autosport: “I took this job here because I kind of believed in the team, the people, but I also felt I could hopefully bring something that wasn’t here before.
“At the end of the day, the real job of a leader is to empower everyone in the team and really take all the crap away from them and let them do their job and give them the tools they need.
“And hopefully, since I’ve started, a few people will feel that a little bit of that has already happened.”
Flavio Briatore also returned to F1 to join Alpine as an executive advisor. He is certainly a big and influential name in the paddock, and he backs Oakes as a leader for the team.
He said: "Ollie is enthusiastic, young, ambitious: that's what we need in the team. To turn around this team, you need the young people, you need the people with a lot of passion for the job.
"The people understand the good ones, not the bad ones. The people [need to] understand what's going on in the factory. The people [need to] understand what's going on in the race.”
Oakes told Autosport that he believes with him and Briatore heading the team, Alpine have “a clear vision” and “clear leadership”.
With a likely highly-competitive season ahead, Alpine looks to be making the necessary changes to bring the team further up the grid.
It remains to be seen whether the Enstone squad can return to winning form, but if it can replicate its late 2024 results consistently, it’ll be on the right path ahead of the rules reset in 2026.
