Mercedes agree F1 deal with Alpine ahead of new rules in 2026

Alpine, owned by Renault, recently ditched their engine programme despite internal protests

Alpine F1 have announced that it will take Mercedes engines from 2026 after ditching their own power unit programme earlier this year.

The multi-year agreement will see Mercedes-Benz supply French team Alpine with power units and gearboxes, when new engine and chassis regulations come into force in 2026.

The partnership will run until at least 2030.

Alpine announced in a September statement that their Viry-Chatillon engine production facility outside Paris, which employs more than 300 staff, would become a ‘Hypertech’ centre of engineering. It will include the establishment of an ‘F1 monitoring unit’.

Alpine, sixth in the 2024 constructors’ championship after a shock double podium in Brazil, are the only team using Renault power units. Their Formula One chassis factory is at Enstone in the United Kingdom.

Alpine said the F1 monitoring unit would "aim to maintain employees’ knowledge and skills in this sport and remain at the forefront of innovation for Hypertech Alpine’s various projects."

Employees at Viry accused Renault management in August of wanting to buy in Mercedes engines from 2026 to reduce direct costs by more than $100m.

"We fail to understand what justifies dismantling the elite entity that is the Viry-Chatillon factory and betraying its legacy and DNA by implanting a Mercedes heart into our Alpine F1," the works council said then in a statement.

"The announcement of the end of the development and production of French power units for Formula One is a nonsense."

Mercedes will supply Alpine’s F1 team with engines and gearboxes from 2026 onwards (Getty Images)

There has also been speculation that Renault could sell the team, although executive adviser and former boss Flavio Briatore said in August that would not happen.

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

"It is a turning point in the history of the Viry-Chatillon site, which will ensure the continuity of a savoir-faire and the inclusion of its rare skills in the Group’s ambitious future while strengthening Alpine’s position as an ‘innovation garage’.

"Its racing DNA remains a cornerstone of the brand."

Formula One championship leaders McLaren use Mercedes engines, as do Williams, Aston Martin and Mercedes’ factory team. Aston are due to switch to Honda in 2026.