Alpine Seeks New Engine Supplier for 2026

Bruno Famin confirms the closure of Renault’s F1 engine operations, with Alpine actively seeking a new supplier for 2026.

Bruno Famin has just confirmed his departure from Alpine F1 during a FIA press conference in Belgium, providing some details on the team’s power unit supply situation.

Alpine will have a new team principal for the second half of the 2024 season, with Famin confirming his departure from the team director role by the end of August.

Alpine has not yet confirmed the identity of the new team principal, but the leading candidate is Hitech GP founder, Oliver Oakes.

“I will dedicate my time to the Viry-Chatillon activities starting September 1,” Famin confirmed during the press conference at Spa.

“I will leave my position as team director by the end of August.”

These activities will likely involve winding down the F1 engine operations, as Famin confirmed that a plan for a customer engine is indeed underway.

“The latest news is that we have presented a project. Actually, the project is not the power unit. The project is much broader than that. It’s a transformation project at the level of the Alpine brand.”

“The Alpine brand is expanding; it has a massive development project with seven new models coming in the next few years featuring cutting-edge technology, very ambitious to build this new sports brand and make it known outside of France, all over the world.”

“Then, the project that was presented at the beginning of the week to the staff representatives at Viry-Chatillon was or is in the process of reallocating resources from one side to the other.”

“There is the development of the 2026 power unit, which was already in production and might be stopped to dedicate these resources and skills to developing new technologies for the brand, for the brand’s new product.”

“One of the consequences of this project, if accepted, would be that the Alpine F1 team buys a power unit instead of developing its own power unit. We would then have more resources to develop the brand.”

“The project that was presented to the staff representatives in two different governance instances speaks of 2026. We are discussing with different power unit manufacturers (including Mercedes) and for now, nothing is settled. We must follow the process very strictly. We cannot make any decisions before reaching the end of this process.”