► Alpine will stop making its own engines at the end of 2025
► Caps off a difficult hybrid era
► Most rumours suggest a Mercedes deal in 2026
Alpine is winding down its F1 engine program, with the company set to stop developing F1 powertrains at its Viry-Châtillon facility. Instead, the site will become Hypertech Alpine; a new centre for innovation and R&D. Resources and employees will be redistributed as part of the transformation, and the team will continue to make the current Alpine engine until the end of 2025 – it just won’t develop one for the forthcoming 2026 rules.
What this expected?
The news comes after months of speculation. Most believe it’ll result in an engine deal with Mercedes from 2026 onwards to coincide with new engine rules. If true, that would mean Alpine cars would be powered by a different brand, which seems confusing from a marketing point of view…
‘Creating this Hypertech Alpine centre is key to Alpine’s development strategy and, more broadly, to the Group’s innovation strategy,’ said Alpine CEO Philippe Krief. ‘It is a turning point in the history of the Viry-Châtillon site, which will ensure the continuity of a savoir-faire and the inclusion of its rare skills in the Group’s ambitious future while strengthening Alpine’s position as an “innovation garage”.
‘Its racing DNA remains a cornerstone of the brand. It will continue to fuel an unprecedented industrial and automotive project, thanks particularly to Hypertech Alpine’
Why did this happen?
The team has been struggling as of late; it sits 9th of ten teams in the constructors’ championship – and is by far the worst performing works team with just 13 points. It’s possible management has suggested the team concentrate on the chassis side instead. After all, creating a competitive powertrain in F1 isn’t easy. And creating your own isn’t essential for winning either, as McLaren’s recent success with a Mercedes engine proves.
It’s a blow for F1 in many ways, but the writing has been on the wall for a while: paddock sources have claimed the Alpine/Renault engine is down on both power and reliability compared to the others. Alpine has also been unable to benefit from using data from multiple teams in the way that Mercedes, Ferrari and RB Powertrains do, as it only supplies its own two cars. Mercedes, for example, powers Aston Martin, McLaren and Williams in addition to its own cars – eight in total.
So what’s going to happen to Viry-Châtillon?
Alpine isn’t scrapping Viry-Châtillon, but is instead rebranding it as Hypertech Alpine. Its mission goal is predictable. According to today’s release it’ll ‘bring together some of the best talent in the world to contribute to the development of ultra-high-performance vehicles and innovations in cutting-edge technologies, for Alpine and Renault Group.’
Battery and electric motor technology sit at the top of the list, but the centre will also contribute to the development of a new Alpine supercar. It’ll also play a role in other motorsport programs such as the WEC, Formula E and Dakar.
F1 powertrains are very much off the list, but it will continue to monitor the sport at least: ‘Formula 1 activities at Viry, excluding the development of a new engine, will continue until the end of the 2025 season,’ the release goes on to say.
Interestingly, Alpine also says the Hypertech facility will be concentrating on ‘the development of engineering services for other companies,’ something we’ve seen teams such as McLaren do with great success.
What about the workers?
Alpine is keen to stress that this won’t result in job cuts, but rather a redistribution of expertise. The release says that ‘each employee affected by this transformation project will be proposed a new position within Alpine Hypertech.’ It’s a way of keeping experience, expertise and jobs within the company, after all.
We’ll update this story when we know more.