Viry-Châtillon employees refuse to give up F1 engines

During the summer, right in the middle of the summer break, tensions have arisen at the Renault factory in Viry-Châtillon. The President of the Renault group, Luca de Meo, made the decision to stop production of engines for the Alpine team. In response, starting in 2026, Alpine is expected to become a customer team of Mercedes. In a statement shared shortly before the Dutch Grand Prix, Viry-Châtillon employees are protesting against the decision.

A propulsion unit for 2026 that is already very efficient

For the employees of the Alpine factory in Viry-Châtillon, this decision amounts to denying the historical legacy of the manufacturing of Renault engines. It is expected to be official by September 30th and has sparked protests from the factory staff. Renault and Formula 1, it’s 50 years of history that are about to end. Through a press release shared by Viry-Châtillon themselves, the teams are asking their president to reconsider this decision.

If for the moment the breakup is not definite, the 2026 engine is already ready, their last project, the RS26 A engine, has already undergone its first tests on the test benches last June. According to the press release, it has already reached the set goals for the early 2026 races. The power unit exceeds 400kW performance in the first hours of operation, they stated. The demonstrated efficiency exceeds 48%. The engine is lighter and shorter by 12%, offering a significant margin for chassis integration development. No critical reliability failure has been reported. Alpine, on the other hand, seemed more pessimistic by denying the progress of Renault.

Despite a project already completed, the construction of the engine was not easy for the team. Throughout the conceptualization, engineers had to face the different requirements of Alpine. A lack of freedom that Renault employees had to deal with to produce the engine group. Since 2021, the team has suffered from repeated intervention by the Group’s management, imposing no less than four successive technical directions in Viry, or four team directors in four seasons, read the statement. This instability deprives the team of the long-term construction necessary for success in Formula 1.

The departure of F1 is final.

Since the announcement of their departure, Renault has not yet commented on the subject. For his part, Flavio Briatore, executive advisor to Luca de Meo, told the media that he had no idea about the decision regarding the Renault engine and that this decision belonged entirely to the president of the Renault group. The statement, released on the occasion of Zandvoort, highlights the misunderstanding regarding the choice of new engines. “Mr. De Meo had told us that the soul of the Alpine brand must feed on its roots and that there was no question of cutting them. He assured us that money was not a problem and that only innovation mattered,” they said. “We do not understand what justifies killing this elite entity that is the Viry-Châtillon site and betraying its legend and DNA by grafting a Mercedes heart into our Alpine F1.”

While the statement highlights the absurdity of stopping the development of powertrains by Renault, employees do not forget the real issue. With an impressive competitiveness in Formula 1, the departure of the company from the sport is definitive. In the future, the technological barrier will be too high to reconquer, skills will be scattered, and the initial investments too costly to consider a return to Formula 1, they warned.

As the site transformation plan did not appeal, the teams are asking the management to reconsider their decision to halt production. « We cannot accept that Alpine and the Renault Group tarnish their images [those of the power units groups], that is why we ask Mr. De Meo and his board of directors to reverse this decision,” it read. « The men and women of Viry-Châtillon cannot endorse Renault’s definitive halt of its F1 engine development program,” it was stated.

After the engines come to a halt within a year, the Viry-Châtillon factory should be reinvested in other sports disciplines in which Renault is already involved. While this may seem like a well-thought-out decision, it actually puts Formula 1 engineers in a delicate position. Many of them will end up in other departments that are already fully staffed, leading some to leave hastily, while other Formula 1 engine manufacturers like Red Bull Power Train with Ford or Audi are massively recruiting. Therefore, the expertise of Renault engineers will be put to use within other teams.