Renault F1 exit confirmed

Today at 11:06 PM

The brand that powered Max Verstappen, Daniel Riccardo and Mark Webber to their first Grand Prix wins – and delivered world championships for Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel – is leaving Formula One (F1).

The Renault name will not be on the grid after 2025 with the French car maker confirming it will abandon its engine development for its 'Alpine' team for a new set of technical regulations for the 2026 season.

The team – which has been racing under the car maker's 'Alpine' performance sub-brand since 2021 after making a comeback as 'Renault' in 2015 – is expected to continue with Mercedes-Benz engines, although this has not yet been confirmed.

Rumours of the end of the Renault engine program caused staff protests at the team’s Viry-Chatillon plant in France in the last few months.

MORE: F1 driver standings – Who can win the 2024 championship?

Renault is currently one of only three 'works' teams in F1 – factory-supported teams who build both their own chassis as well as their own engine – the others being Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari.

The rest of the grid uses 'customer' engines and installs them into their own chassis as all teams fight for the 'constructor world championship' – currently led by Australian Oscar Piastri's McLaren team with Mercedes engines ahead of Honda-enginedRed Bull Racing.

The unconventional move of a team owned by a car maker using another brand's engines – seemingly forfeiting any marketing bragging rights – prompted workers at the team's engine plant to protest with the hashtag 'ViryOnTrack'.

In a statement, the car maker said there will be no job losses at its F1 engine factory which will continue to supply engines for 2025 before being repurposed as a hub for the development of Renault and Alpine road cars.

Creating this Hypertech Alpine centre is key to Alpine’s development strategy and, more broadly, to the Group’s innovation strategy," a statement from Alpine CEO Philippe Krief said.

Alpine's A110 sports car was dropped from Australia in 2021 after new ANCAP crash regulations were introduced – however, its future expansion includes electric vehicles which may see it return to local showrooms.

The F1 chassis will continue to be developed at the team's United Kingdom factory at Enstone, north of Oxford.

The move saves considerable costs at Alpine after poor results on track in 2024 leaving it currently ninth of 10 constructors despite being a factory-backed outfit with considerably more resources than many teams ahead of it.

In an attempt to rejuvenate the team, in June 2024 controversial figure Flavio Briatore – the Italian former team boss previously given a lifetime ban for race fixing, since overturned – was brought in as 'executive advisor' reporting directly to Renault CEO Luca de Meo.

Briatore began restructuring by removing Team Principal Bruno Famin – the Frenchman having been in the role just on 12 months – replacing him with 36-year-old Brit, Oliver Oakes.

Currently, the Alpine team races in the republic's blue, white and red national colours, uses French Renault engines and has two French drivers in Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

In further moves away from its French identity, Australia's Jack Doohan will join Alpine full-time – replacing Ocon – in his F1 debut as Gasly's team-mate in 2025.

The decision to end the engine program comes almost 12 months after 24 per cent of the team was sold by Renault to a group of investment firms with ownership from Hollywood movie star Ryan Reynolds.

Renault's history in F1 is impressive, with 12 Constructor's titles and 10 drivers world championships won with its engines over multiple eras in the category.

Its yellow-coloured 'Renault Sport' team was one of the first to race with turbocharged engines – after BMW – in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It has had even greater success as an engine supplier, having won its first Grand Prix as a supplier to Lotus in Portugal in 1985.

A golden era with Williams followed including four consecutive Constructors titles and a Drivers championships for Nigel Mansell (1992) and Alain Prost (1993).

Renault also powered Michael Schumacher to the 1995 driver's title at Benetton, Williams' Damon Hill to the 1996 championship and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 – making it six Constructors crowns in a row – before a young Fernando Alonso won the 2005 and 2006 Driver's championships for the factory Renault team.

Australia's Mark Webber took all nine of his Grand Prix victories using Renault engines while his Red Bull Racing team-mate Sebastian Vettel claimed four consecutive world championships in Red Bull-Renaults from 2010-2013.

The French brand's engines also powered eight of Daniel Riccardo's nine wins while current world champion Verstappen became the youngest winner when he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix in a Renault-powered Red Bull aged 18 years and 228 days.

The Renault team also gave Oscar Piastri his first F1 test, leading to a courtroom spat between the team as the young Australian signed for McLaren for his first full-time drive in 2023.

The post Renault F1 exit confirmed appeared first on Drive.