2024 Alpine F1 Team

[BassVirolla]

Flavio, IMHO, is good at stirring up publicity, but until Alpine builds back key development and leadership staff, they will be struggling to remain competitive.
The Renault powerplant is dead, the question is how quickly and painlessly Alpine and Renault can shut down the F1 work at Viry-Chatillon without triggering a major union hissy-fit.
I see a lot of speculation that the team may be for sale. The reality is that even a debilitated team is probably worth more than $1.5bn right now. If somebody offered Alpine $1.6bn, they could probably exit with a profit.

- Flavio is perfectly aligned with the true goal of this team (I mean, of Di Meo): Be top of midfield, do podium, and not spend to much. That is what they can do with the Mercedes engine and some progress at Enstone with Sanchez

- Regarding Viry: Famin will be the head of Viry from September to do the transition to being a developpement center for Alpine Road cars and not F1. They said no one will be fired, they will keep the employee and try to put them where they can at Renault + keep a part at Viry for Alpine road cars

Not firing people is a good way of getting rid of them on the cheap:

- Offering jobs not matching to the skills and expectations.
- Giving transfers / movings to other Renault factories.
- Transfering people to projects not related with the workers experience.

... and waiting them to leave.

[AR3-GP]

- Regarding Viry: Famin will be the head of Viry from September to do the transition to being a developpement center for Alpine Road cars and not F1. They said no one will be fired, they will keep the employee and try to put them where they can at Renault + keep a part at Viry for Alpine road cars

I've seen the movie before. These F1 guys can't adapt to the slow, bureacratic, and red tape filled world of road car development. It is like if you take a Formula 1 driver and ask him to step down to Formula 4. Most of them won't do it unless they are near retirement.

Renault/Mechachrome will lose all of their top engine specialist to the other F1 teams and other industries.

[KimiRai]

OnlyFans might replace BWT as sponsor in 2025 according to user Viryfan from Autosport forums, usually a good source. Difficult to believe but stranger things have happened...

edit: it seems original source is a French podcast

[Foryster]

OnlyFans might replace BWT as sponsor in 2025 according to user Viryfan from Autosport forums, usually a good source. Difficult to believe but stranger things have happened...

if it would mean back to french racing blue and fantastic first Alpine liveries, then YES!

but BWT are reliable and reputable sponsor - I hope they will stay.

[ispano6]

I was in the customs line at the airport with Otmar right after the Austin race in 2021 and I remember meeting eyes with him and he just had this deflated and dejected look and I was hoping for greener pastures for the gentleman. I'm glad to hear that he's part of a new F1 project and he appears to be in the know with a lot of Alpine related happenings . Maybe he is recruiting people from Alpine?

Otmar Szafnauer: Why are ‘very senior people’ leaving Alpine?

Moving on to talk about Alpine, the team from which Szafnauer split a year ago as he and Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo no longer agreed on the roadmap of success for the Alpine effort, Szafnauer explained the path that he had set off on before the split.

“Alpine is another reset,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get the opportunity to continue on the road that I was going down. What I was doing there was convincing really good engineers and talent, not at the highest level but at the mid-level where the performance actually comes from, to come to join the team, because of the project that we were working on.”

Szafnauer offered some examples of what he had set in motion during his time at the helm, with these moves ultimately not working out.

“A lot of them… I talked to, from a reputation standpoint, one of the best simulation engineers in the world, he was working at Apple when Apple thought they were going to build a car, and he’s moving back to the UK. We convinced him to come to Alpine, and I hear he’s not going now,” he said.

“One of the best aerodynamic structures guys in the world – I didn’t work with him, but that was his reputation working at Red Bull – I convinced him to come.

“A cost cap architect, which, if you’re good at that, you can unlock between five to 15 million of extra spend. That extra spend at the margin is pure performance. That’s where you’re spending it.

“He was at one of the competitive teams and after lunches, dinners, and coffee mornings with him, I got him to decide to join the team. But then I was overridden by the CFO of the Renault Group when they got involved.

“So all those people, apart from one, have now changed their minds. And a lot of the good people that they had there have also left. So it’s a bit of a reset.

“Those resets take time to even get back to where you were before. Pat Fry was one of the first to leave, and then Matt Harmon and Dirk de Beer. Head of vehicle dynamics left, head of aero left… there’s so many of them.

“I just heard two days ago that the head of composite design has resigned, and the chief strategist has resigned. So very senior people are leaving. And you’ve got to ask yourself why.

“It’s generally the team atmosphere, the culture, whatever it is, they don’t like. In Formula 1, the higher the skill level that you have, the easier it is for you to find another job.

“I always say the best guys leave first. So you’ve got to make sure that the team that they’re working for, and the team that you’re leading, is the best place for them so they don’t want to leave.”

https://www.planetf1.com/news/otmar-sza ... assessment

[Waz]

Curious what he means by a cost cap architect. Is he talking about a person involved in writing the regulations for the Cost Cap?

Renault/Alpine have quite the habit of chasing personnel from the FIA.

[Foryster]

So what’s with Renault engine? Any news ? What does this silence mean?

[diffuser]

Eliminates by far the weakest link of the Renault project for the past deacde.

Viry-Chatillion is the only part of the French national Formula One team that is actually French...

If Alpine is just a sticker on an English garagista team, then Alpine is little better than an Alfa Romeo sticker on a Sauber?

If the team is not French in any way, what is the motivation for the Group Renault board to continue with it?

Sounds like Renault are getting out. I mean it does keep coming up that they're divesting of parts of it? Leaving the team to Alpine to do advertising with it, cause they know the team will continue to be profitable, costs them nothing. Plus, Renault can set sales goal for Alpine being tied to F1 and if they don't make them, decide to sell. If they make their numbers, leave it to Alpine to decide if it wants to buy the shares from Renault and keep running the F1 team.


Spending 150 Million a year to produce a PU that you sell to 1 team at 7-8 Million, presuming that Alpine are paying them for that PU, you're losing 142 million. It's costing you 142 million to stay French. So that's the impetus for getting out of the PU business, it's costing them 142 million. While the F1 team is profitable and continues to appreciate.


The PU manufacturing model of F1 isn't profitable. You need to have a 150 Million from a Huge advertising budget that you can throw away on it.

[AR3-GP]

Eliminates by far the weakest link of the Renault project for the past deacde.

Viry-Chatillion is the only part of the French national Formula One team that is actually French...

If Alpine is just a sticker on an English garagista team, then Alpine is little better than an Alfa Romeo sticker on a Sauber?

If the team is not French in any way, what is the motivation for the Group Renault board to continue with it?

F1 teams make money now. This is a new development compared to the pre-budget cap era. They have made an initial investment, and now it returns a profit every year. It will repay the initial investment and more.

This is a generic income model that underlines most business types. Renault could tie up cash in many kinds of businesses that can turn a profit but they are an auto manufacturer. Running a shoe factory wouldn't make sense. Aside from the income that it generates directly, F1 offers a unique marketing opportunity for global auto manufacturers. Why do you think that Ford is happy to put stickers on the Red Bull power unit for a great cost? Why would Renault, another OEM, have no interest in the same?

I think buying the Mercedes engine is just about cost reduction and performance improvement. It makes the project more hollow in terms of it's Renault roots, but they will have disposed of the one parts of the business that cost money at the end of the year. The team itself does not.

I think Renault's intention is simply to strip away things that cost money (engine program) and keep the things that do not (the team). No car manufacturer would ever give up their seat at the table in this current economic climate for F1.

[selvam_e2002]

Yes. Honda and Audi and Ford also joining the F1 so who will use Renault Engine. If Andretti join F1 then Renault has an option. It seem no additional team. so I think it is best option for Alpine.
At least Renault keep the foot in F1 in some sort.....

[JordanMugen]

Spending 150 Million a year to produce a PU that you sell to 1 team at 7-8 Million, presuming that Alpine are paying them for that PU, you're losing 142 million. It's costing you 142 million to stay French.

Renault would have numerous customers (at least Red Bull, VCARB and McLaren, if not Williams too), if only they had invested since 2015 to produce the best power unit (more powerful and most reliable) at any cost! It would be highly in demand.

[FW17]

Spending 150 Million a year to produce a PU that you sell to 1 team at 7-8 Million, presuming that Alpine are paying them for that PU, you're losing 142 million. It's costing you 142 million to stay French.

Renault would have numerous customers (at least Red Bull, VCARB and McLaren, if not Williams too), if only they had invested since 2015 to produce the best power unit (more powerful and most reliable) at any cost! It would be highly in demand.

Are you serious!!!!

It was Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Helmut Marko and entire Red Bull empire's fault. If they had not taken all the credit in those championship winning years, Renault's engine coffers would have been filled with gold.

[diffuser]

Spending 150 Million a year to produce a PU that you sell to 1 team at 7-8 Million, presuming that Alpine are paying them for that PU, you're losing 142 million. It's costing you 142 million to stay French.

Renault would have numerous customers (at least Red Bull, VCARB and McLaren, if not Williams too), if only they had invested since 2015 to produce the best power unit (more powerful and most reliable) at any cost! It would be highly in demand.

Are you serious!!!!

It was Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Helmut Marko and entire Red Bull empire's fault. If they had not taken all the credit in those championship winning years, Renault's engine coffers would have been filled with gold.

Yeah, doesn't work like that. It's always a losing proposition but you need to be in it for other reasons. Like JordanMugen said, they've never had the financial heart in it. Never wanting to spend enough money to be at the top. Always trying to being in F1 while penny pinching.

[JordanMugen]

Spending 150 Million a year to produce a PU that you sell to 1 team at 7-8 Million, presuming that Alpine are paying them for that PU, you're losing 142 million. It's costing you 142 million to stay French.

Renault would have numerous customers (at least Red Bull, VCARB and McLaren, if not Williams too), if only they had invested since 2015 to produce the best power unit (more powerful and most reliable) at any cost! It would be highly in demand.

Are you serious!!!!

It was Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Helmut Marko and entire Red Bull empire's fault. If they had not taken all the credit in those championship winning years, Renault's engine coffers would have been filled with gold.

That makes zero sense. Renault was on the back of the rear wing at the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP. Then Nissan-Renault alliance themselves agreed that this Renault branding would be replaced by VERY prominent Infiniti branding from 2011-2015.

You couldn't miss the prominent Nissan-Renault alliance Infiniti branding, it was all over the Red Bull Racing team... If that's not giving credit to Nissan-Renault, what is?




Customers like Lotus (Enstone) and Williams moved from Renault to Mercedes of their own accord. I don't see how Red Bull has ANY responsibility for that?!

If the Renault hybrid were world class and far more powerful than Mercedes, surely Williams would be desperate to switch back to Renault ASAP? Similarly McLaren would continue with Renault from 2021 to the present day, and have no thoughts of changing?

[FW17]

Renault would have numerous customers (at least Red Bull, VCARB and McLaren, if not Williams too), if only they had invested since 2015 to produce the best power unit (more powerful and most reliable) at any cost! It would be highly in demand.

Are you serious!!!!

It was Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Helmut Marko and entire Red Bull empire's fault. If they had not taken all the credit in those championship winning years, Renault's engine coffers would have been filled with gold.

That makes zero sense. Renault was on the back of the rear wing at the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP. Then Nissan-Renault alliance themselves agreed that this Renault branding would be replaced by VERY prominent Infiniti branding from 2011-2015.

You couldn't miss the prominent Nissan-Renault alliance Infiniti branding, it was all over the Red Bull Racing team... If that's not giving credit to Nissan-Renault, what is?

Customers like Lotus (Enstone) and Williams moved from Renault to Mercedes of their own accord. I don't see how Red Bull has ANY responsibility for that?!

If the Renault hybrid were world class and far more powerful than Mercedes, surely Williams would be desperate to switch back to Renault ASAP? Similarly McLaren would continue with Renault from 2021 to the present day, and have no thoughts of changing?

Well Christian Horner did not dedicate 6 hrs of his day to felicitate Renault after their first victory 2009 Chinese Grand Prix every day till end of 2013. That is the least he could have done.

Red Bull did not build a Renault Church in Milton Keynes or in Austria