Alpine’s F1 Engine Program Faces Abrupt End Amid Employee Unrest

Aug.5 - Alpine's works F1 engines could fall silent even earlier than planned, according to emerging French media reports.

Before he stepped down as team boss in the past few days, Bruno Famin admitted at Spa that Renault's works team was treading very carefully as it plots a new course as a paying user of customer power units for 2026.

That means the end of the works engine operations at Viry-Chatillon.

"For the time being, nothing is done," Famin insisted. "In France, we have unions and a very strict social process. And we cannot take any decision until having reached the end of that process.

"I mean, we are talking to some PU manufacturers, but we cannot sign anything until this process is over."

He insists that the 350 staff at Viry will all be transferred to other jobs, but that doesn't mean those who work on the soon-to-be defunct engine program are not furious.

"We did not see this coming," union representative Karine Dubreucq, who works at Viry, told L'Equipe. "This is a stab in the back - pure betrayal.

"We have developed engines here that were good enough to become world champions many times, and now that's not possible anymore?" she added. "They didn't even wait for the test bench."

Famin said at the Belgian GP that Renault's 2026 engine project has actually been proceeding very well, with one team member telling L'Equipe: "We think it will be equal to the Mercedes.

"In the worst case, there would be a difference of 15 horsepower. We have redesigned everything in the turbo."

As for union rep Dubreucq, she thinks the unrest at Viry could have consequences for the Alpine team a lot sooner than is planned. "There are already those reporting sick," she said. "This is going to cause damage."

Another factory employee is even warning of the possibility of staff strikes.

"We might not be able to start the cars," that source is quoted as warning. "If we stop now, there will never be a Renault engine in F1 again."

Ouest-France newspaper speculates: "Alpine could go on strike over the engine issue. This is a brutal decision for the 350 people involved, who deserve the right to react."

Meanwhile, Osterreich newspaper is reporting the possibility that Alpine might lose the backing of major sponsor BWT, an Austrian water treatment system manufacturer.

The potential replacement?: The adult sex worker network OnlyFans.

"The premier class of motorsport could soon have an erotic racing team," the newspaper correspondent joked.

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