The Renault-Alpine F1 project has been mired in controversy of late. The most recent news coming out of the French team was its decision to shut down its Viry-Chatillon factory, marking at least the end of a works Renault engine deal with Alpine. This hasn’t gone down well with its employees at Viry, who also staged protests both on and off the track.
About 100 employees of the Renault Power Unit factory were at the Italian GP in Monza to protest the Renault Group’s decision to end the works power unit operations. In France, the employees staged a protest outside the factory premises.
A first look at the peaceful protest some of Renault’s Viry-Chatillon-based F1 staff are partaking in at Monza pic.twitter.com/IZFqjSiJu4
— Autosport (@autosport) August 30, 2024
Renault’s decision to shut down its power unit operations has been linked to a more cost-effective solution they have found. They believe that the resources they have allocated to a costly F1 engine program — which has not yielded the desired results — can be channeled to the Renault-Alpine Group’s other motorsport projects.
As for their F1 program, Renault are rumored to be in discussion with Mercedes for a customer arrangement to use their power units, suspension, and gearboxes from 2025 onwards. This would be a vastly cheaper deal than manufacturing their own power units. However, the Viry factory’s employees have already deemed this as a “betrayal”.
The Renault power unit has been one of the least competitive engines since the turbo-hybrid era began in 2014. However, The Race reports that the French manufacturer’s engine department claims their 2026 power units — which have been in development for quite some time now — have the potential to be the benchmark for the rest of the field.
“The French side is adamant that the intensive work already conducted for the 2026 engine which is being built to vastly different rules and a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power has yielded a technological breakthrough.”
If Renault do shut down their power unit program, the employees believe that the team will have wasted a massive potential for Alpine to step up the ranks in 2026. The latest engines being developed in France boast no reliability issues, a 12% shorter Power Unit length, and over 100 concepts being tested with an investment charting into the millions.
That being said, it seems as though the civil war between the team’s F1 operations in Enstone, its Viry-based PU factory, and the Renault Group is far from being settled. The reports have alluded to dissatisfaction from the employee union, suggesting that Renault are not ready to listen to the voice of reason.
