► Motorsport expansion
► What’s next for Alpine?
► How Renault Sport fits in
In 2025 Alpine seems to be everywhere you look. Like just a handful of brands such as Ferrari and Aston Martin in compete both in F1 and World Endurance Racing – but unlike both of those marques, Alpine also finds itself in MotoGP. This year the Alpine A runs on Pramac Yamaha MotoGP bikes.
It’s all a part of a wide-ranging and confusing (at least to the layman) strategy to build up Renault’s revived sport brand ahead of a wave of mostly electric cars. But it seems to be working. ‘We multiplied sales by three with the same car (the A110) at the end of the lifecycle,’ Renault boss Luca de Meo tells CAR at the launch of its 2025 F1 car. ‘Normally cars at the end of their life go [down], but we actually multiplied by three.’
As fizzy and unique as the A110 is, it’s in the past, with a recent range refresh the final chapter in Alpine’s lightweight hit. More crucial for Renault Group’s balance sheet is the wave of Alpine EVs on the horizon; the A290 hot hatch, itself a hot version of the Renault 5 is already here, and it’ll be followed by a larger A390 SUV due to arrive later this year.
I just wanted to make the thing work financially,’ says de Meo of Renault Group’s involvement in F1. ‘We did a couple of moves by separating the powertrain, and getting a new supplier, plus all the work we’re doing on the cost structure, plus the support that we get in from sponsors,’ he adds. ‘I think this is more than acceptable for a group like Renault.’
It’s been money well spent. F1 and its ever-growing audience has already played a role in putting the Alpine brand in front of consumers around the globe. ‘If you calculate the value of the Alpine brand today compared to around four years ago, it’s multiplied by three,’ de Meo tells us. ‘Formula One is a huge booster for awareness at least, if not position. I think it was a very good marketing investment.’
It’s only getting better. F1 75 Live later that evening is an example of the step change in popularity F1 has experienced; powered by Drive to Survive and a longer more global calendar, it’s been able to return more reach than ever for the team’s involved. de Meo wants to keep that value there.
‘Formula one is the pinnacle of the automotive industry, so you want to see yourself competing with Ferrari, Mercedes etc rather than some funky names,’ he tells us. Opening [F1] up too much is not good, because we need to care about the value of the franchise. Restricting the numbers of teams is very important to make sure that the valuation of these teams goes in the right direction.’
What else is there?
All sporty brands launching EVs and SUVs need an unattainable hypercar to keep them desirable: Alfa Romeo has the 33 Stradale, Lotus the Evija and soon Alpine will have the Alpenglow. It sounds like a sustainable muesli, but it should be a weapon when it does arrive:
‘We’re looking at a combustion engine,’ confirms de Meo of the hypercar – although EV and hydrogen power has been bandied about in the past. ‘We’re looking at something that is beyond 700 horsepower or something like this.’ It’ll be road legal, but as you’d expect, produced in very limited numbers because ‘we do it for the fun.’
What about Renault Sport?
But Alpine isn’t Renault Group’s only sports brand. Renault Sport has existed for a similar amount of time and arguably has more historical cache than the Alpine brand which has overtaken it. ‘Officially, the Renault Sport Badge, was put it in the fridge’ de Meo reminds us ‘We decided that everything that would go on sports things would be building on Alpine, because we need to do that.’
Enter the Renault Five Turbo, a 500hp, rear-wheel-drive beast, labelled an ‘insane product and mini supercar,’ by the Renault boss just minutes later. Where does that fit in? According to de Meo, it makes perfect sense:
‘The Renault Five Turbo was never an Alpine – it was a Renault,’ he responds when asked about the badge on the new hot hatch. ‘If you want to do something authentic then you’ve got to respect the history of the thing.’
With that in mind, it’s possible we’ll see more Renault Sport products on the way, as like many other brands Renault looks to combine electric vehicle technology with pure nostalgia. ‘We have ideas on how to revive some of the iconic products of the past,’ he adds.
So there you have it; Alpine will maintain its position as the sporty brand in both products and marketing, with historic products returning in a Renault Sport guise when appropriate because it’d be plain wrong to do anything else.
‘It makes sense right,’ he reminds us. ‘We do competition, we do gentleman driver things, we do turismo, we do Formula One. It makes just sense as a strategy discipline to put it onto the Alpine label,’ he says. Apart from when it doesn’t, of course…