Does Alpine (presumably) not putting in the highest bid of (say) £35m p/a (and full technical control) for Adrian Newey's services, show a lack of desire by Alpine to win at any cost?
Aston Martin-Honda's plan to win the championships seems more coherent than Alpine-Renault's or Alpine-Mercedes' plan IMO.
Briatore recently talked of a plan for podiums in 2027 which seems very unambitious. 2026 is a new set of regulations, the Alpine team is rebuilt since 2016 over 11 years, surely Alpine can come of the gate with the fastest car?
Fans can probably assume too that it's Aston Martin Racing who are likely to make the big offers like say $100m p/a for the services of the likes of Max Verstappen, whereas I don't have much confidence in Alpine-Mercedes being willing to make such offers to secure the services of Verstappen (or even of Russell or Leclerc or Norris or Piastri, lol, etc).
Not to say that Gasly or Doohan will not be capable of winning the WDC for Alpine-Mercedes.