Motor racing-Renault’s French F1 employees ‘deplore’ Alpine engine decision

PARIS (Reuters) – Alpine’s French-based Formula One employees spoke out on Tuesday against the Renault-owned carmaker’s decision to cease engine production at the Viry-Chatillon facility at the end of next season.

The move, which could see Alpine compete with Mercedes engines as a ‘customer team’ from 2026, was announced on Monday after months of speculation and staff resistance.

The statement said the staff “regret and deplore the decision to stop the F1 engine in 2026” and claimed “no serious study has been carried out to assess the impact on future (car) sales and the prestige of the brand”.

Alpine, struggling on the F1 track, is Renault’s premium sportscar brand and is moving towards an all-electric future, with Viry-Chatillon to be transformed into a Hypertech engineering centre.

Formula One enters a new engine era with a major technical change in 2026.

While the plans for Viry include an ‘F1 monitoring unit’, the employee statement said the proposed staffing and budget seemed too low “and calls into question the potential return of Alpine as an engine supplier in the long term”.

It spoke also of a loss of confidence in management and warned that there was a “major risk to the departure of critical skills”.

The CSE adds that it has concerns about the proposals for staff at the Viry-Chatillon factory, adding that it believes the low staffing levels would inhibit the potential return of Alpine as an engine supplier in the long term.

The statement added: “The history of the Viry site shows that conflicting decisions have often been taken, and demonstrates the importance of maintaining highly qualified skills for the future in order to leave the door open to a return to F1 when the regulations and the financial context of the shareholder make it more attractive.”

The CSE statement also says it is concerned the Viry-Chatillon site will go from 500 to 334 jobs on 1 January and will see the termination of the contracts of many service providers.

It believes that will in turn result in a further 100 job losses in indirect jobs among the main partners by the end of this year. And it says it will see the end of the Alpine Mechanical Excellence Competition – a government-backed apprenticeship trying to create equal opportunities and promoting diversity.

In summary, the CSE statement concluded that “the lack of maturity of the projects brought forward and the loss of confidence in management pose a major risk of critical skills leaving the Viry site.

“Despite the turmoil of the last two months, the Viry team has continued to develop the power of the 2026 engine that Alpine is depriving itself of. This decision against the tide causes Alpine to miss out on its sporting history.

“For all these reasons, the CSE staff representatives unanimously gave an unfavourable opinion on the transformation project.

“We call on the public authorities to defend the sustainability of employment on the Viry-Chatillon site.”