In hindsight, they were overperforming with Cyril. Pretty crazy to think about but the team is just so dysfunctional and Renault never truly committed to the team.
Binning him off king of kickstarted this whole downward spiral of aimless, revolving-door leadership changes, and perpetual instability within the technical leadership. It must be hard to come together as a team when your leader and vision and plans are always changing on the whim of the latest corporate sycophant. Say what you will about Cyril but the team progressed up the standings to him to P4, which they only managed to hold onto after booting him and are now backsliding terribly, down to 6th last year, and 8th with a real possibility of finishing 9th so far this year.
No civil war, that was a long time ago, every protest in France is badly repressed by the police, thousand of illegal arrest, hundreds of wounded and many mutilations. There protest was basically nothing and will bring nothing.
@@pietroungaro3759 they'll be managed to other areas, what rights do they need to fight for exactly? It's a cost decision, in a sport. Both sides, to continue the engine program and to stop it, have valid points. Ultimately if these guys did a better job nobody would be thinking about closing it. They are also part of why they'll close it. Gotta stop blaming the "evil capitalist boss" all the time. The engineers had years to get their stuff right and they failed, it's their fault too.
There was no way that a French factory was going through this without a strike and a protest, which is very admirable. Though I would question if they’re going far enough if trackside operations weren’t affected
@@lukew6725 Absolutely unreal that some people are being deliberately disingenuous about a fucking protest. It's their salaries on the line, so they kinda deserve a say. Never mind the fact that it's a job they're passionate about and refuse to give up on in spite of recent struggles. But yeah IDK. Keep having a laugh at their expense. F1 has too many engine manufacturers anyway.
Cyril did sold lots of lies. He might not be the main culprit for the poor performance and reliability of the Renault engines. But he certainly has part in guilt for the growing toxic relationship with RB.
Don't forget the fact, Fred Vasseur was initially in charge when they bought the team from Lotus. Although the CA era does sound nice, think of what FV could have done if the board gave him space to do his own thing like his current stint at Ferrari. Just something to think about hypothetically.
Fred Vasseur thought everything was in place when he was there and Abiteboul and him disagreed on that. Abiteboul was right, Vasseur was wrong and just didn't understand was was needed to build an F1 infrastructure. He brought his junior formula mentality, the same mentality he took to Sauber where he made them lose all independence and identity while the infrastructure went to shit as well. Kaltenborn had done everything to keep that team ready to be bought by a manufacturer, Vasseur basically gave huge parts of the organization away to Ferrari, making it into a Ferrari junior team. And still they almost went bankrupt and were considering selling to Andretti. Vasseur stopped the Honda deal while obviously the plan was to try and move Honda to buy the organization which was feasible since the infrastructure was still on a high level. The lack of independence became upmost clear when Ferrari simply called back Sauber's main designer Simone Resta to Maranello, while the spoken language in Hinwill changed from Swiss-German to Italian. Vasseur was a terrible teamboss. He would've messed up at Renault and definitely wouldn't get done what Abiteboul did there which is to get a whole new factory build and a new windtunnel and brought people like Fry and De Beer in. Together with Prost and Taffin and Stoff in France, they had quite a good leadership there. Again, Vasseur is not a builder. The suggestion that he would've done well is BS.
I think you didn't consider an element: Alpine's WEC partecipation. Right now they're using the same engine of F2 cars made by outsider mecachrome, and it sucks...because it's designed for short F2 races, not going flat out for 24h at Le Mans. Considering the costs of WEC are much reduced (they're also doing the cheaper LeMans-Daytona-Hybrid car, not the full fledged Hypercar as Ferrari/Aston/Toyota) it could make sense to shift the ICE people in Vichy to devolping an indigenous Alpine endurance engine. Compared to F1 engines, the costs are much much lower and there's a lot more engineering freedom...they could design any engine they want (V4, V6, V8, turbo or non turbo) with also the pontential of using it in road cars.
I wouldn’t call Mecachrome an outsider. AFAIK they’ve been building the ICE part of the Renault F1 PU for as long as I remember, and yes, including those legendary V10s back in the ‘90s
The wec car uses a heavily modified version of the mechacrome engine.. practically rebuilt from the ground up by the viry team. They were looking strong before it blew up .. oh well
As a Fench, I am so disapointed from this situation. Alpine leaders just doesnt give a f*ck about what the team need in term of ressources infrastructures, coordination or watesoever to perform in f1. We got some of the most talented ingeneers and the renaut engine was the absolute unit of engine for decades. They even manage to beat ferrari between 2005 an 2006. But the management don't give a sh*t and has no long-term vision. Switching of team principal each years, loosing some of the most talented driver of the grid by silliness about some real contract. A "All French Team" exclusively for marketing purpose. With no Ambition. This team became such a joke. And its not about the employees who do their best but the management that does not account his responsabilities.
Andretti wanted to come in 2025 not even using a GM engine which means GM could easily get cold feet and withdraw from the agreement to build engines it is such an obvious trojan horse. Unlike Audi there is zero guarantee of a GM engine to be put in the back of an Andretti entry and them using say Renault engines makes it even more obvious GM lacks the commitment. For GM they can just slap the Cadillac name on the side of the car and call it a day they don't have to make an engine and they have their name on the side of the car which is probably what they want. Advertising the Cadillac brand without having to build an actual engine. It is beyond cynical from GM and that is why Andretti was talking about Renault engines. As for planned 2025 entry which is no longer happening they would have had to design for the current regulations then the next set regulations in 2026 as a brand new entry. Teams like Red Bull McLaren Ferrari and Mercedes would have eaten Andretti alive. Andretti is both deluded and entitled he hasn't even got a concrete guarantee that GM will build engines just some weak partnership agreement. That and he thought he could come in, in 2025 build for the current regulations and then in 2026 build for the new regs in the space of a year. Hahahaha not a chance. Everyone on the grid knows that he wouldn't be anywhere near the big boys like the aforementioned RB McLaren Ferrari and Mercedes yet Andretti and his delusional fanboys is acting like he would be. Andretti would be a mobile chicane My favorite stunt he pulled was when he ran around the paddock at Miami GP last year asking the F1 team bosses to sign a piece of paper saying they wanted him to join and they all basically ignored him treating Andretti like an unwanted smell. If his performance in other racing series are anything to go by he would crash and burn.
@@justinburley8659 Difference is the other teams don't have so many unknowns surrounding them when it came to the 2025/26 regulations and engine supplier. Andretti would be absolutely slaughtered by the likes of McLaren Ferrari and Red Bull.
Why on earth do you think THAT is somehow magically gonna improve everything? That's not gonna change the fact the management is a joke and seemingly every decision made by said management is a joke. Nostalgia isn't fixing a damn thing, especially with a crater this deep and investment this anemic.
Luca de Meo is a corporate brand man, not a motorsport man. His MO is to see lines go up on quarterly graphs; less spending and more profit, the end. At Séat he turned the Cupra sport badge into a freestanding full brand that only goes as far as selling facelifted/rebadged Séats. Now at Renault Group he's similarly making Alpine do little more than build rebranded Renaults (A290 = sportier Renault 5) whilst the bespoke A110 is left there to age. Alpine rebranded the Renault F1 team, in WEC it initially bought the Rebellion Oreca-Gibson and put a new livery with Alpine branding on that, until its new LMDh was ready (also an Oreca at heart). He just wants to re-skin stuff in a way that makes more money. His approach to the F1 team now is the same. A customer engine is much cheaper and that's all that matters when the surface-level branding and profit margin are the only important things to you. Regardless of what Flav Briadodgy and Hitech's man on the inside (Oakes) are encouraged to say in his defence, de Meo is categorically the wrong person to be having top-level sway in a Formula 1 team. The whole system there is rotten, potentially beyond recovery. It's a pathetic disaster.
Being a works team is great and all but a Mercedes engine would probably be a massive upgrade. Look at how well mc laren are doing compared to when they were last a works team, Aston did well last yr and Mercedes themselves are doing well. If they want to do better it’s a no brainer.
so let me get this straight, the team is unhappy with their underperforming engine so they decide to go with a customer engine. The guys who make the engines then throw a fit that theyre going to lose their job? Maybe do better.
renault should've shut down their engine program the moment their last customer pulled out. it has been an idiotic decision to keep that mess running for so long. the fact that they still have an engine program today is another piece of proof how long the mismanagement has been going on in renault. they should just leave and let andretti take over.
"A strike from 9am to 3pm" At first I was like "wow they couldn't even be bothered to strike for a full day" Then I realized they're french so that probably is a full day for them. And they wonder why they're slow....
Parse the words carefully. "Never wants to sell the team" doesn't mean it won't happen. He'll say he was forced to sell it, but wishes he didn't have to. And "The team isn't for sale" only means it isn't for sale at that specific moment. Doesn't mean anything about selling the team next week or next month.
Remember in late 2022 how Binotto was adamant that he will be the team principal of Ferrari in 2023, and just a little time later he "resigned". I smell exactly the same thing with this "We're not for sale"-policy in Alpine. I won't be surprised if they are sold in a few year's time.
Crazy expensive. The DFV cost less than a million £ to get to the track, the most successful engine ever. This exit through costs is the death knell of F1. So cut the BS, let’s get “simple” 2.5 or 3 litre 10 cylinder running on synthetic fuel max rpm 16k is the sort of plan that everyone (including Judd etc) could manage to afford. And the fans would be ecstatic with the sound. The weight would be reduced the cars more nimble and the real objective is back to racing for the fans.
@@Free-4554 Right..... I am guessing you missed Zandvoort and Monza. At Zandvoort Norris just left Verstappen for dead it was embarrassing to watch for Red Bull. Meanwhile at Monza McLaren & Ferrari simply drove away from Red Bull even with DRS. They just kept building and building a bigger and bigger gap lap after lap. Even Mercedes looks to have a better package. Red Bull next race is probably going to lose the lead in the constructors to McLaren and Ferrari is also breathing down their neck in the constructors. So they ain't in a good place.
@@Free-4554 they aren't losing, they're disappearing from McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes' rear view mirrors. The understeer problem is really serious, even Max hates it.
Renault had a great sport brand with Renault Sport, but they seems to want a very distinctive brand for their sport car (and sport team), but instead they just kill all their sport brand. Alpine is a legendary name in rally, but is slowly dying and lost its meaning since Renault bought it in 1974. It's like Renault absolutly want to surf on the nostalgic names (as they do with their new car, and the Alpine A110) but forget that Renault was on of the bigger name in F1, and Alpine was "just" a big name in Rally in the 60s-70s, but never in racing circuit.
@@viiviketomaki7284 it was a yellow car with a big Renault on it, Alpine was just here for some sort of sport credibility or something like that. I know Alpine and Renault are the same brand and same people behind it, but what I mean is that the name is probably curse since they never had a good result with Alpine only as the team name (not just in F1). And on the production cars its even worse, with maybe the last A110 being a little exeption (but still, not a car that give good sport result). It's like Renault don't believe in their own name, even though the best result they had (and best sport car they made) was with that name). It would be like Audi changing its name to Volkswaggen then Volkswaggen Sport, then Audi-Volkswaggen then back to Audi. It's just name, but it's hard for a team to be really involve when they don't know who they are. Alpine is now making electric car, with a kind of sport spirit (the A290), and at the same time, Renault is showing a R5 Turbo 3 using the same base model, when they're not suppose to be a Renault sport anymore (which is suppose to be replaced by Alpine). It's not new, they had this brand since 74 and never knew how to properly use it, always hesitating where to go with it.
@@djse But it was entirely developed by Alpine with the engine by Renault. Yeah it was yellow but it was still an Alpine. And if it's all about the blue the A441 won the two liter sports car championship. And pre-buyout Alpine also won their class at Lemans in 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969. So I object to you dismissing their history of circuit racing.
@@viiviketomaki7284 Alpine have more win by themselves in 10 year than with Renault in 50, and Renault had more win with the RS brand than they had using the Alpine brand, I don't say they don't try, I just say Renault failed using the Alpine brand (just one win in one discipline in 50 years compare to multiple win in different categorie when it's independant Alpine or Renault without the Alpine name). It's probably some kind of curse or a very bad leading, that's what I mean :)
@@djse For most of that 50 years Alpine didn't do any racing. Because after that Le Mans win in 1978 Renault pulled funding from the Alpine racing effort and redirected all personnel to focus on F1. Alpine wouldn't return to racing until 2015. There are no curses. The slump of the Alpine F1 team is the result of Luca De Meo's bad management and underfunding. I mean look at the F1 team, it changed name to Benetton and became a championship winning team, changed name to Renault and again won championships and then changed name to Lotus and won races. None of these name changes cursed it or demotivated the team personnel. What demotivates team personnel is chronic mismanaged, a revolving door of personnel and constant firing sprees. None of which would be fixed by a name change back to Renault.
And we are meant to believe andretti were denied entry because they wouldn't be healthy for the sport due to lack of competitiveness?? What simulation are we living in?
Saying Briatore "left" after the Singapore crash is gaslighting at it's best. He was given a lifetime ban from F1 that was only overturned by a misguided French court.
Remember in late 2022 how Binotto was adamant that he will be the team principal of Ferrari in 2023, and just a little time later he "resigned". I smell exactly the same thing with this "We're not for sale"-policy in Alpine. I won't be surprised if they are sold in a few year's time.
I predicted back in 2019 that Alpine (Renault) would sell the team by 2026. I love watching all the chaos that this team is under because it keeps my prediction alive. Just sell it to Andretti
@@T_Mo271 cause Liberty Media is blocking them out of all the avenues they’ve tried to take so far, buying Alpine would be one the could explore. But you’re right, it’s probably a worst case scenario
Rebranding does nothing to a car's performance. Renault/Alpine/Enstone have been mediocre since 2007 with a couple of good seasons sprinkled around but I hey mostly been around the 5th/6th spot in the WCC and they're the only works teams to be extremely mediocre during all of the hybrid era since 2014. Doesn't matter what name they have, Renault has mismanaged the Enstone team and they're the ones at fault. The Power Unit is one of their biggest issues so they need to try something new.
It's not about "solving problems" with a name change. It's about dedicating effort and resources to the project. It's about showing everyone that they're willing to put the resources into it by putting their name on the line, and not just making the F1 team a marketing piece for their basically non-existent luxury sports car brand that only sells a single model of car. It's about showing that they're serious about celebrating their F1 legacy and continuing it into the future. The Alpine brand is a complete joke. Buying engines from Mercedes, or anyone else for that matter, just reinforces that regardless of what the F1 team accomplishes, which will be very little given how dysfunctional they are.
They have made good engines in the past, the difference is that Renault doesn’t invest enough to that facility as Mercedes or Red Bull do to their engine factories, there was an interview to Newey or Marko in the past I don’t remember but they said that in the period in 2014 where Red Bull were using their engines, they were very bad so Red Bull team important people demanded Renault to fix and try to make the engine faster and more reliable, the Renault CEO at the time said that he is not interested in F1 and that he only invests in the engine factory because of commercial potential. That’s the mentality Renault have had for years and until they invest more and take their project seriously it will be this shit situation all over again
Shouldn’t Alpine just switch to an engine like Ferrari or Mercedes, even Honda? Their aero is decent and with a better engine they even be championship contenders. Who cant they just switch that easily?
@@VistokDB Yeah but then they'll lose the advantage of being a works team. They can design the car and engine around each other currently. If they have to buy engines then they'll have to design the car around the packaging of the engines they buy. It sounds small but very few teams have ever won a world championship without being a works team or having the backing of a works engine, like McLaren back before Mercedes bought Brawn. Funny enough one of the few teams to win without a works engine was Red Bull with Vettel... with Renault engines.
They've been under an engine freeze since Bahrain of 2022. I believe they requested an exemption to make up the gap between them and the other engines but were denied.
6:07 nice 😂😂😂 But joking aside the problem with Alpine is that they want to be successful, but they don't want to invest properly kinda like Haas but with a works engine
Alpine giving up works team status immediately moves them behind the likes of Aston Martin or even Williams in terms of project. There are some people who think Alpine STILL have more potential than McLaren purely because of their ability to maximise engine cooling/bodywork. It's such a idiotic decision if the outcome is anything other than selling the team.
McLaren has proven you don't need works team status to compete for championship titles. Renault/Alpine engine has been reportedly behind competition for the last 15 years or so, even when RBR was dominating. I think that switching to supplier that had best or near-best engine for decades, while also freeing up capital for investment in other parts of the team is simply good management. Is it possible their 2026 engine would've been better than Mercedes? Sure. Is it likely? Their track record says no.
They probably wouldn't be hurting nearly as bad if it weren't for the Horner engine freeze. Supposedly the 2026 engine that isn't constrained to the engine freeze era is supposed to be much better and they will be able to develop it over the year, unlike their current engine.
Why don't Alpine transfer their F1 HQ from Enstone to Viry so that all the departments are working together creating a unity among all departments? That's something i never understood, all factory teams are based in one place and even mercedes who has them in 2 places are in small distance between each other...
Building a works F1 engine without any revenue from customer teams is not a viable strategy. And would Renault come up with a Baldrick-style "cunning plan" to encourage employees to leave before sacking them? Yes indeed.
Normally I find this kind of drama to be an irritating distraction from the sport but this is all so fantastically French I love every second of it! If only I could have a glass of red wine and some foie gras while I listen, life would be perfect!
Ever since rejecting Andretti, Alpine/Renault have proved the reasons given for doing so to be absolute nonsense. Even if the goal is to sell more Alpine road cars, who on earth is going to want to make a purchase from such a mismanaged company?
I agree, instead of trying to improve their current engine to try and prove they can be competitive, they're striking and not working on the main issue of the car.
Except one of them has a previous successful history with the engine supplier, and is on course to winning at least the WCC. The other doesn’t know wtf they’re doing.
So what are the chances Alpine pulls a Merc? Sell 1/3 of the team to the outside investors, 1/3 to Hitech and keep 1/3 so they keep their name on the door.
De Meo and those behind him if successful with their malicious push to stop producing Renault F1 engine will be those who F1 world will remember as destroyers of Renault F1 image forever!!! And with that I, as a long time Renault F1 fan will forever abandon my passion to F1 since my favourite engine maker is gone. Renault F1 has so many great engineers who brought Renault to historical glory!! I just can not understand who one suppose to be to kill all of that legacy!!!??? How about shareholders? Guys common don't you understand what is going on???!!! Shareholders wake up!!! If you let this to happen you will loose something NO Money can ever buy!!!
It does seem sad to never see the Renault 2026 engine run, there's a good chance it'll be behind the others again but there a chance they're even or who knows maybe ahead?
Viri could transition to the same strategy Cosworth is undertaking and is making buckets of money (I assume) from, being the go to engine provider for bespoke hyper cars. Maybe Bugatti wouldn't need to buy their next engine from a British company.
The Renault engine hasn't been very good since the turbo-hybrid era.... saying that they need to stay a works team to benefit is off the mark.. Look at McLaren...
This is getting worse, Renault works team were doing well but it all went shit once they rebranded & Riccardo left. I really do not understand why Flavio was hired as he has been out of F1 for 16 years atleast & he has plenty of baggage. One thing is for sure, Alpine does not know jack about how to run a works team. Another point is, F1 needs to atleast allow more engine manufacturers in, it's getting ridiculous as you can not have only 4 engine manufacturers to provide engines to the entire grid. Diversify F1 to bring the costs down.
It's complex for new manufacturers to join. Remember that both Porsche and Audi was going to join? Now it's only Audi left. Beside Audi, we'll also have Redbull Powertrain with Ford coming in 2026. I do wonder or Honda stays providing engines for VCARB or whatever they'll be called by then.
@@NexuJin Yes, i agree but F1 has to incentivize new manufacturers to come in & the $200 million upfront clause is hurting the sport. Look at what WEC has done, they have streamlined the rules significantly bringing down the cost of getting a Hypercar program to get up & running. It used to cost $800 million but now, it's between $200/$500 million increasing the Hypercar grid from 2 teams to 8. That is how it's done.
To me, the most interesting way to get out of this crisis for Renault would be to keep working on future engines for F1, while showing Enstone their own shortcomings with a stint of two/maybe three seasons with another engine… Not unlike the humble pie that McLaren had to eat when they went, ironically, to the Renault engine after their ill-fated partnership with Honda, when they put every of their shortcomings on Honda
I’m English, but I think it would be so sad to see the end of Renault F1 engines, after so much success in the past. I say let them go ahead with the 2026 engine after so much work has already been done, and let’s see what their best is.
It was all about awareness but a week later, this is the first time I was aware of this happening, despite reading and watching tonnes of f1 content since Monza
In a way, the situation at Alpine is a perfect reflection of the much broader problem with the management culture in french companies as a whole. A management that is consistently disconnected from its base, has no long term vision and takes no accountability for anything.
If they go thrue with using a non Renault engine, it will translate into car sales as how a sane person would buy a car from a brand who do not thrust themselves to build an engine?
The CSC's criticisms seem spot-on to me, and leadership at Renault would be catastrophically imbecilic to refuse to listen to them. It's also worth noting that Renault's "do-more-with-less" strategy led to underinvestment in crucial years of the rules cycles that have hurt Viry to this day.
