Alpine In Formula One

Alpine F1 Team, currently racing as BWT Alpine F1 Team for sponsorship reasons, is the name under which the Enstone-based Formula One team has been competing since the start of the 2021 Formula One World Championship. Formerly named Renault F1 Team and owned by the French automotive company Groupe Renault as well as Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, the team was rebranded for 2021 to promote Renault's sports car brand, Alpine, and continues to serve as Renault's works team, a position the team will keep until Renault pulls out of Formula One (as an engine manufacturer) after 2025. The chassis and managerial side of the team is based in Enstone, Oxfordshire, England, and the Renault-branded engine side of the team is based in Viry-Châtillon, a suburb of Paris, France. The team competes with a French licence.

Background

Origins of the team

The team has a long history, first competing in Formula One in as Toleman, when the team was based in Witney, England. In , following its purchase by Benetton Group, it was renamed and competed as Benetton. As Benetton, it won the Constructors' Championship and its driver, Michael Schumacher, won two Drivers' Championships in and . Prior to the season it moved to its current location in Enstone, UK.

By the season, Renault had purchased the team (for the first time), and by the season its name was changed to Renault F1 Team, and it was racing as Renault. Renault won the Constructors' Championship in and and its driver, Fernando Alonso won the Drivers' Championships in the same two years. In , Lotus Cars came on board as a sponsor, and the team's name changed to Lotus Renault GP, though still racing as just "Renault" for that season. By 2012, Genii Capital had a majority stake in the team, and from 2012 until 2015 the team's name was Lotus F1 Team, after its branding partner, and it raced as "Lotus".

At the end of 2015, Renault had taken over the team for a second time, renaming it to Renault Sport Formula One Team. The team raced as "Renault" again, from , and continued as such until the end of the 2020 season. When discussing the history of the organisation as a whole rather than those of specific constructors it has operated, the colloquialism "''Team Enstone''" is generally used. The team operates in a facility on a site in Enstone. By May 2023, Alpine had approximately 1,000 personnel in Enstone and 350 in Viry-Châtillon.

Early Formula One involvement

The involvement of the sportscar manufacturer Automobiles Alpine in Formula One can be traced back to 1968, when the Alpine A350 Grand Prix car was built, powered by a Gordini V8 engine. However, after initial testing with Mauro Bianchi at Circuit Zandvoort, the project was ended when it was found that the engine produced around compared to the Cosworth V8 engines' 400. In , the company produced the Alpine A500 prototype to test a 1.5 L V6 turbo engine for the Renault factory team which would eventually début in .

In September 2020, Groupe Renault announced their intention to use "Alpine" as their works team's new name going forward to promote the Alpine brand, and thus the team became known as the "Alpine F1 Team" whilst retiring the "Renault F1 Team" moniker after five years.

In June 2023, a group of investors, including actor Ryan Reynolds, agreed to a deal to pay €200 million for a 24% stake in the Alpine Formula One team. More investors joined the group later in 2023, including NFL players Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, golfer Rory McIlroy, former heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua and footballers Trent Alexander-Arnold and Juan Mata.

Racing history

Rebranded Renault works team (2021–2025)

2021 season

For 2021 Alpine signed two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso to replace an outgoing Daniel Ricciardo. This would mark Alonso's third spell driving for Team Enstone having driven for them from 2003 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2009 and won two drivers championships with the team in 2005 and 2006 when the team used the Renault name. and Esteban Ocon was retained from the 2020 Renault team. The Alpine car used Renault engines. Renault team boss, Cyril Abiteboul, announced he would leave as Renault transitioned to Alpine. Abiteboul was replaced by Davide Brivio, who previously worked for Suzuki in MotoGP.

Alpine's first race ended with Alonso being forced to retire, after debris caused his car to overheat. Ocon was hit by Aston Martin driver, Sebastian Vettel. Despite a disappointing start, Alpine scored in the next fifteen races, including a victory for Ocon at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.

It marked the first victory for a French driver driving for a French team since Olivier Panis' triumph at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix driving for the Ligier team as well as the first victory for a French driver driving a French car powered by a French engine since Alain Prost's triumph at the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix driving a Renault car. Alonso also scored a podium in the Qatar Grand Prix, after qualifying fifth but starting third due to Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas gaining grid penalties.

2022 season

In January 2022, both team principal, Marcin Budkowski, and non-executive director, Alain Prost, left their roles. Otmar Szafnauer, formerly of Aston Martin F1 Team, was announced as the new team principal in the same month. Former deputy secretary-general for sport at the FIA, Bruno Famin, has been recruited as executive director of Alpine at Viry-Châtillon, responsible for power-unit development. Famin had also previously led Peugeot to three consecutive Dakar Rally victories as head of its sporting division from 2016 to 2018, and a Le Mans 24 Hours triumph in 2009 as technical head of its endurance program. Oscar Piastri replaced Daniil Kvyat as test driver. In February 2022, BWT became the title sponsor of the team, in a deal aimed at sustainability drive.

Alonso qualified in second for the Canadian Grand Prix, only behind Verstappen. This was his best qualifying position since the 2012 German Grand Prix, though he suffered an issue in the race and finished in ninth.

2023 season

Alonso moved to Aston Martin for the 2023 season because he wanted a multi-year contract extension, and Alpine was only willing to give him one more year in F1. Alpine announced that Piastri would be replacing Alonso; but Piastri immediately denied he had a contract to race with the team. Team principal Szafnauer criticised Piastri, saying that Piastri should show more loyalty to Alpine, and claimed that Piastri was thankful when told about his F1 promotion prior to Alpine's announcement. In September 2022, a hearing of the Contract Recognition Board determined that Alpine did not have a valid contract with Piastri and was free to race with rival team McLaren in 2023. During the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix weekend the team confirmed that Pierre Gasly has signed a multiple-year contract with them starting in 2023.

In July 2023, Laurent Rossi was replaced by Philippe Krief as CEO. During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Alpine announced that Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane would leave the team after the race. Chief technical officer Pat Fry would also leave the team at the end of the year to join Williams.

Alpine finished the season sixth in the Constructors' Championship, while Gasly and Ocon were 11th and 12th, respectively, in the drivers' standings. The team reportedly lost about half a second per lap on average because the Renault power unit was lagging behind its rivals. Without this deficit, the team could have had performance similar to that of the Mercedes team.

2024 season

Alpine retained the driver pairing of Gasly and Ocon for the 2024 season. At the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team locked out the bottom of the grid in qualifying and finished the race in 17th and 18th. After the race, it was announced that Alpine's technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer had left the team, with the team moving to a structure of three technical directors, with Joe Burnell overseeing engineering, David Wheater for aerodynamics and Ciaron Pilbeam for performance. A few days later, it was reported that Bob Bell will leave his advisory role at Alpine to reunite with Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin in an operational role. On 2 May, David Sanchez, who had left McLaren a month earlier, was signed as executive technical director. In May 2024, Alpine announced the controversial return of Flavio Briatore to the team as a executive advisor. He previously worked at Team Enstone as team principal from 2000 to 2009, having previously resigned due to a race-fixing scandal.

After finishing out of the top ten four races later, Alpine scored their first points at the Miami Grand Prix where Ocon finished tenth. At the Monaco Grand Prix, Ocon collided with Gasly during an overtake attempt in the first lap, resulting in the former's retirement from damage. Ocon was issued a five-place grid penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix and later apologised for his role in the incident. Team principal Bruno Famin commented that there would be "appropriate consequences". A week later, Alpine announced that Ocon will leave the team at the end of the season following his contract running out. During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Alpine announced that team principal Bruno Famin would leave his role as team principal. Famin is set to move to Renault's mainline motorsports divisions. Famin's position was taken by Oliver Oakes from the Dutch Grand Prix onwards. Alpine scored a double podium at the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix with Ocon finishing second and Gasly third behind only race winner and defending drivers champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing, a result which moved Alpine from ninth to sixth in the Constructors' Championship ahead of the Haas, RB and Williams teams with three rounds remaining. This marked "Team Enstone's" first double podium under the Alpine name and their first double double under any name since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix when the team was known as Lotus F1.

The day after the Qatar Grand Prix—where Gasly finished 5th and Ocon DNFed due to a crash on the first lap—it was announced that Ocon would be released from the team early, prior to his scheduled move to Haas in 2025. In his place, Jack Doohan, who was already signed for the team in 2025, made an early debut for the last round of the season at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

2025 season

For 2025, Gasly will be retained by the team for what will be Alpine's last season with a works Renault power unit. Jack Doohan, who has served as the teams' reserve driver in previous seasons will be promoted to a full time race drive replacing Esteban Ocon who will join Haas. Four drivers were selected to replace Doohan as test and reserve driver for the 2025 season, including Paul Aron, Franco Colapinto, Ryō Hirakawa, and Kush Maini. In place of BP and Castrol, with both teams leaving Alpine after eight years to supply fuels and lubricants to the impending Audi entry, Eni and Valvoline joined the team as official suppliers.

The 2025 season started poorly for Alpine, with the team sitting bottom of the Constructors' Championship in 10th place after the first three rounds in Australia, China and Japan, being the only team not to score a point in any of those three rounds. Following a poor Melbourne weekend for the team, Doohan was involved in numerous wheel to wheel incidents with other drivers during the China weekend in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix which saw him pick up four penalty points on his FIA Super Licence after only two Grands Prix. To make matters worse, Gasly was disqualified from the main Grand Prix result due to his A525 chassis being underweight. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was disqualified for the same infringement at the same race. At the following round at the Japanese Grand Prix, having had to vacate his car to Ryō Hirakawa for the first practice session that weekend, Doohan returned to the cockpit for the second practice session only for him to crash heavily after failing to close his car's DRS system before going through the first turn. Doohan started and finished the race in Japan in 19th, while Gasly started 11th and finished 13th in the same event. The Japanese round also laid bare the continued deficencies of the Alpine's Renault power unit once more, with data suggesting the Alpines losing at best 0.6 seconds in the second sector at the lap at the Suzuka Circuit (which features two long straights), mostly because of the power deficit of their Renault engines.

Following the Miami Grand Prix, team principal Oliver Oakes resigned, with Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore becoming the ''de facto'' team principal and racing director Dave Greenwood assuming Oakes' formal duties. Doohan was also confirmed to have lost his Alpine seat to Colapinto on a "rotating seat" basis, with the latter scheduled to debut at the subsequent Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and race for Alpine for five races. Doohan would be demoted to reserve driver in Colapinto's place.

Mercedes customer team (2026 onwards)

2026 season

On 30 September 2024, owing to lack of strong results with its power unit during the V6 turbo-hybrid era since it began in 2014, Renault announced it would be ending its engine programme following the conclusion of the 2025 championship and would not be making engines for the new 2026 regulations. This means Alpine will lose its status as a works team and become a customer team of Mercedes. Alpine will utilise Mercedes engines and gearboxes from the 2026 season onwards.

Complete Formula One results

;Notes
* * – Season still in progress.
*^‡ – Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Esports results

( key (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

* Season still in progress

See also

* Signatech – A motor racing team supported by Automobiles Alpine in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

References

External links

Alpine F1 Team's official Website

{{Formula One constructors

Alpine F1 Team
Formula One entrants
2021 establishments in France
Auto racing teams established in 2021
Companies based in Oxfordshire
French auto racing teams
British auto racing teams
British racecar constructors