Alpine Reportedly Considering Discontinuing Its Power Unit Project From 2026

Monday, 17 June 2024 at 18:12

Recent reports suggest that the Alpine F1 team is considering abandoning the cancelation of their power unit program and becoming a customer team.

In 2024, Alpine is one of the four PU (power unit) manufacturers. Teams that produce their own PU are generally referred to as works teams.

These teams tend to have an advantage over customer teams (the ones that purchase power units) because they can build power units that fit their cars.

Customer teams have to take what they get and build their cars around it. However, Alpine didn't get any advantage from being a works team over the last couple of seasons, because they clearly have the least powerful PU.

The French team amassed only five points in the first nine race weekends of the 2024 season and stood in P7 in the Constructors' Championship following the Canadian Grand Prix.

It seems Alpine cars have multiple problems, but weak PU is one of the main ones. In 2026, they French team has a chance for redemption as F1 enters new regulations with new PUs.

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However, it seems the team isn't very confident in their ability to produce a competitive PU. According to motorsport.com, Alpine is currently weighing up its alternatives regarding becoming a customer team.

"Alpine is considering abandoning its works Renault engine in Formula 1 from 2026 and has opened talks with rival manufacturers about the possibility of securing a customer deal instead."

"Sources have revealed that Alpine team principal Bruno Famin has been pondering the situation over recent weeks, and has held talks with rival manufacturers to see what the alternative options could be."

There isn't more information so far about which team would be Alpine's most likely PU supplier, but there will be quite a few alternatives in 2026: Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Honda, and Audi.