{"id":22480,"date":"2024-07-26T13:30:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=22480"},"modified":"2024-07-26T13:30:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:30:37","slug":"alpine-to-abandon-renault-engines-by-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/26\/alpine-to-abandon-renault-engines-by-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine to abandon Renault engines by 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine will no longer be powered by Renault engines in 2026, opting to pursue a new direction for the new regulations. The French outfit will <strong>forfeit its manufacturer status<\/strong> and become a customer team as part of a large-scale restructuring. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/26\/george-russell-mercedes-upgrades-can-bring-fight-to-mclaren\/\" target=\"_self\">Mercedes<\/a> are considered Alpine&#8217;s preferred option to power their F1 machines in the future.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A new era for Alpine<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Instability has characterised Alpine&#8217;s history in Formula 1, and today marks yet another significant change at Enstone.<\/p>\n<p>As previously reported by LWOS and other outlets, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/25\/alpine-to-replace-team-principal-as-part-of-major-reshuffle\/\" target=\"_self\">Bruno Famin will step down<\/a> from his role as team principal.<\/p>\n<p>It was roughly twelve months ago that Famin was <strong>appointed as an interim team principal<\/strong> &#8211; replacing the outgoing Otmar Szafnauer.<\/p>\n<p>After failing to convince their other targets to lead the team, Alpine opted to keep the 62-year-old in charge.<\/p>\n<p>However, since Flavio Briatore was assigned the role of Executive advisor, it became clear the Frenchman was no longer steering the ship at Enstone.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"QoRB9YjXSVZYcX5rpU_LEQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2163804987\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'QoRB9YjXSVZYcX5rpU_LEQ',sig:'MDiEdDVnCv0Cj0d1dn0KFlpB4oRUEtFZkO86gISONxY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2163804987',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>New engine, new approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To accompany a new driver line-up next season, another key shift is taking place at Alpine in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Next season will be their last campaign with Renault engines.<\/p>\n<p>After decades in Formula 1, including Championship-winning seasons as a team (2005-2006) and engine supplier (2010-13 with Red Bull), Renault are leaving the sport.<\/p>\n<p>The decision has been taken that &#8211; despite <strong>the inherent advantage<\/strong> that comes with being an engine manufacturer &#8211; Alpine should change its approach.<\/p>\n<p>To cut costs and begin a reorganisation of the team, Alpine will use a new power unit starting in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>With Renault unwilling to invest in improving their works&#8217; programme, they have chosen to cut their losses and outsource this aspect of development.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"HYiVzmT7Td5hdCkUMhKKtA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2163801948\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'HYiVzmT7Td5hdCkUMhKKtA',sig:'sWO_T7hjLXqwvpssBUf9dmHyiALIDSTD0Gnj8pN5pbk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2163801948',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/22\/mercedes-and-alpine-inch-closer-to-engine-agreement\/\" target=\"_self\">Mercedes are the front-runners<\/a> to secure an engine deal with the Enstone-based team. However, negotiations with different manufacturers are still ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, the success achieved by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/22\/andrea-stella-defends-mclaren-strategy-at-hungarian-gp\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a> as a customer team proves there are multiple paths to success in F1.<\/p>\n<p>That said, even the Woking-based team would concede that Mercedes, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/26\/leclerc-ferrari-have-paid-the-price-for-failed-upgrades\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> and Red Bull (via their exclusive deal with Honda) have benefited from controlling all aspects of their development.<\/p>\n<p>Rarely do Formula 1 teams surrender control of their engine programme.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, Alpine have opted for <strong>a radical change in direction to change their fortunes<\/strong>. More sceptical observers might suggest this is the first step in Renault&#8217;s withdrawal from F1.<\/p>\n<p>However, this perspective is purely speculative. The only certainty at this stage is that Alpine are willing to flip the script to find the winning formula.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine will no longer be powered by Renault engines in 2026, opting to pursue a new direction for the new regulations. The French outfit will forfeit its manufacturer status and become a customer team as part of a large-scale restructuring. Mercedes are considered Alpine&#8217;s preferred option to power their F1 machines in the future. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":18700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,1567,68,135],"class_list":["post-22480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-alpine","tag-f1","tag-renault"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}