What does Renault’s axing of its engine project mean for F1? Our writers have their say

Following the announcement by Renault that it is ending its Formula 1 engine operations before the new rules era in 2026, the decision will have a huge impact on both its team and the wider grid.

What does it mean for Alpine, its rivals and F1 overall? Our writers offer their views.

Team Enstone can focus all efforts on being winners again – Ben Hunt

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, there seems to be some common sense emerging from the mess that is the confusing Alpine/Renault F1 operation.

In truth, I have never fully understood the reasoning behind Renault’s decision to rebrand its F1 operation to promote one variant of road car, but that’s beside the point.

There have been a number of bewildering decisions culminating in a revolving door or new arrivals and departures.

But now, after months of speculation there is at least some clarity over its beleaguered engine operation at Viry-Chatillon near Paris.

Alpine protestors from Viry-Chatillon

Photo by: Anaël Bernier – Horizons Multiples

The good news is that those staff will keep their jobs and work on the future technology to be used to power Renault and Alpine cars.

The better news is for Alpine’s Enstone F1 operation, that can now cut loose from using an uncompetitive power unit and perhaps more enlightening, the Anglo-French political wrangling with Paris.

Alpine, now free from the shackles, can fully focus on designing an F1 car without the concerns of worrying if it will be hamstrung by yet another dud engine.

If there were any doubts about the decision to finally pack in its F1 engine business and sign up as a customer with Mercedes, which I am sure will upset the purists, then they’d need only look in the direction of McLaren.

The Woking team also tried its luck with a Renault power unit and, in all fairness it did deliver them a third place in the constructors’ championship in 2020, although that was an abnormal season due to the COVID pandemic. McLaren was determined to jettison Renault, as Red Bull had done before them, and opted for Mercedes power, while the latter went with Honda. Since 2021, McLaren has knuckled down and concentrated on designing the best chassis it can and accompanied that with arguably the best engine on the grid.

The uptick in results proves that this was indeed the correct decision and it also shows that you do not need to be an engine supplier to be in with a chance of winning the F1 constructors’ or drivers’ championships.

Of course Renault was never going to champion the fact they have finally admitted defeat, but it was absolutely necessary for the team to become winners again.

F1 2026 FIA car renders

Photo by: FIA

A damaging assessment for F1’s incoming new engine rules – Filip Cleeren

Pulling the plug from its in-house F1 engine programme may well be the right decision for Renault and Alpine, both in terms of finances and competitiveness. With the customer engine parity rules the way they are, McLaren has already shown you can be competitive and even potentially win championships as a customer outfit, which may have been a factor in Renault CEO Luca de Meo’s U-turn on the Viry-Chatillon engine programme. After all, why pour copious resources into an engine division if you don’t feel confident it can match the might of Mercedes and others anyway?

On the flipside the 2026 regulations weren’t just an opportunity to fall behind again, they were also a chance to get ahead of the game. That opportunity has now been lost, and it is at the behest of adapting to whatever Mercedes will do with its engine, which will always involve some sort of compromise for its chassis design.

I think on the whole it is a bad for the series to lose an engine manufacturer before the 2026 regulations era has even started. The whole point of changing the engine rules was to make F1 more sustainable and attractive to OEMs, but with Audi joining and Renault leaving the ruleset has thus far been a draw on the latter, aside from Ford’s relatively limited involved in Red Bull’s in-house programme in Milton Keynes.

Having a bigger variety of fully-fledged engine manufacturers is a sign of a healthy series and it widens the pool of skilled engineers cross-pollinating the entire industry, and with them the rate of potentially road relevant technologies being developed in F1 and across the board. Having said that, it remains to be seen how Viry-Chatillon’s rebranded Hypertech division deploys that know-how elsewhere.

It is also a shame to see a storied name like Renault effectively disappearing from the series. It’s the end of a 47-year-long era of Renault engines on the F1 grid, during which it powered the likes of Williams, Benetton and Red Bull to world championships. It will feel strange not to have – rebadged or not – Renault engines roaring on the F1 grid in 2026. It truly is the end of an era for French motorsport.

Whatever the end goal is here, it is clear that talk over a potential sale of the F1 team won’t go away, and by getting rid of its power unit division Renault has now removed one key obstacle to that outcome.

Race winner Fernando Alonso, Renault R25, takes the chequered flag, closely followed by Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2005

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

A reflection of Renault’s ambitions – Pablo Elizalde

From the moment Renault decided to rebrand its team to Alpine, it was clear to me that the brand was no longer in Formula 1 to win. And that’s fine. Not every team exists to fight for victories and titles.

This is Formula 1 after all, and marketing and sales are such a big factor for car manufacturers that just being on the grid is often more than enough to justify their presence.

Under Liberty Media, this factor has gained even more weight, as F1 teams are probably now more financially stable than ever, and even fighting in the middle of the pack for years is enough pay-off to justify the investment of running a factory operation.

Giving up on the dream scenario of being the manufacturer of its own chassis and engine may now look like it’s Renault admitting defeat. In reality, it’s just a reflection of its ambitions over the past few years. It’s a pragmatic decision that eliminates the notion that it’s in F1 to relive past glories.

Not every team or athlete at the highest level available to them is competing to win. Some might spend years trying to convince people that their intentions are to fight at the very top one day, but after years of falling short, anyone paying attention would start thinking that was never the real goal.

Others might admit from the start that, despite being in the same competition as those who are winning, their goals are much more modest. And again, that’s fine.

Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, the remainder of the field at the start

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Some believed Renault was in the first group and expected it to be doing all it could to win again. You can’t blame those people, though, as that was the narrative Renault bosses pushed from the start. In public, at least.

A move to Mercedes engines is absolutely fine, and it might even pay off on track in the end, but winning in F1 takes an awful lot of work, commitment and resources.

Shutting down its engine operation shows that Renault – at least as a brand – is in F1 because it’s convenient. And that’s fine. But it’s just that: fine.