Pierre Gasly: “It’s possible to be competitive even without your own engine”
There are whispers in the paddock that Alpine could abandon its Renault engine at the dawn of 2026 to become a client team. A possibility that doesn't necessarily frighten Pierre Gasly.
According to Motorsport.com, Alpine would be considering abandoning its Renault engine following the regulation change in 2026 and would be in discussions with other engine suppliers. If this were to materialize, Alpine would therefore transition from a factory team, like Ferrari and Mercedes, to a customer team, like McLaren, Aston Martin, and Williams (using Mercedes engines), Haas (using Ferrari engines), or even Red Bull Racing (using Honda engines).
Such a change does not seem to scare Pierre Gasly, who fully trusts his team to make the right decision. “I trust the decision of top management and I have no particular concern on that side. Things are very clear. I know where I need to focus and we have a lot of work currently on the table with the car we have and that’s where all the attention is focused,” he explained to print journalists this Thursday in Barcelona.
At the time of making a decision for the future, and whether it is better to keep the Renault engine or not, he asserts that everything comes into play. Having experienced both scenarios, with AlphaTauri and its Red Bull engine, and then with Alpine and its in-house engine, he explains that as a factory team, you have no limitations.
You set your own limits and that’s the advantage of being a factory team. From the moment you work with another party, obviously the regulation is established at this stage so that there is a clear parity between all parties, especially on the engine side. But you lose some of the flexibility that you can have as a factory team, the Frenchman said.
Is McLaren the example to follow?
But no hasty decision. According to him, it is important to consider all options and then decide what is best in terms of performance. I think the goal is very clear for the team. We want to be competitive, we want to fight at the front, and that is the goal.
Furthermore, Pierre Gasly believes that the balance has somewhat shifted between the works teams, which were clearly dominant before, and the customer teams, with teams like McLaren moving to the customer side and doing well. They clearly show what is possible to achieve. You have signs that it is possible to be competitive even without having your own engine. So that is certainly at stake. But more broadly, I think it is just important to have all options on the table, and then I choose the top management to make the right decision for the team, he concluded.
