Last week, the French Alpine team announced the end of its collaboration with Renault for the production of Formula 1 engines. This break-up puts an end to almost 50 years of collaboration between Renault and Formula 1 as the company produced many winning cars. Instead, it will be Mercedes who will take over while the French team will become a customer for the German team.<\/p>\n
The end of the Renault era brings with it the closure of the Alpine site in Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon, France for Formula 1, where the team has been present for many years. The site, which will be used for other purposes, leaves 350 employees jobless, raising a lot of uncertainty about their future and that of the site.<\/p>\n
Bruno Famin, who has left his position as team director, will apparently now oversee the motorsports activities in Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon, which could be an indication of the company’s future, but there is not yet enough information to guarantee employees long-term employment. For now, the site continues to produce engines for Alpine until the end of the season, before Mercedes takes over.<\/p>\n
Alpine, who owns several sites, will relocate all their activities to the Enstone site in the United Kingdom, thus concentrating its operations and departments in the UK. A reunification project that had already been announced several times.<\/p>\n
Karine Dubreucq, union delegate of the site in Essonne, was surprised by this announcement. She did not expect the sudden end of this long collaboration. While the brand was already working on the next engines, she believes that the workshops in Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon could have continued to manufacture engines capable of winning championships. If only they had been able to conduct tests.<\/p>\n
This decision has sparked a strong reaction among employees, who are now threatening not to start the cars, which could pose problems for the end of the Alpine season in Formula 1. With the summer break comes the final tests for new improvements on the car. These changes are essential for the rest of the year, but if the employees at Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon refuse to participate, it could lead to delays, worsening Alpine’s situation, currently ranked eighth in the constructors’ championship. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who are already struggling, could miss out on important points for the team.<\/p>\n
\u00ab Potentially, we might not start the cars, \u00bb said an employee as reported by L’\u00c9quipe. At the same time, several employees have already taken sick leave, according to Karine Dubreucq. If nobody works on the development of the car before the restart, Alpine’s chances of climbing up the driver standings could be compromised.<\/p>\n
This week, the announcement about the future of the Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon site should be officially made. This decision will have implications not only for the team, but also for all employees involved in Formula 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alpine has ended its collaboration with Renault for the production of Formula 1 engines, closing the Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon site and leaving 350 employees out of work. The employees, surprised and disgruntled, are threatening to disrupt the end of the season by refusing to start the cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":44595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[53,1050],"class_list":["post-29516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-alpine-f1-team","tag-moteur-renault"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n