Famin denies Alpine/Mercedes 2025 deal – It was not so long ago that the Formula One paddock elite were telling the world F1 was in rude health and had no need for an 11th team on the grid. Guenther Steiner stated at pre-season testing in last year: “Five years ago, you could get teams for nothing, you could pick it up. Nobody wanted them and they went out of business.
“Now, all of a sudden, everybody wants a team. But it’s a lot of people that want to come in and the 10 teams which are here are all financially stable, all well set up. It’s a very good environment at the moment, no one is struggling.”
While no F1 team is on the brink of financial collapse, there is chaos in the paddock for some including at the heart of the highly anticipated entrance of Audi. The German brand failed to fund Sauber sufficiently for the year and so the team were forced to re-sign Zhou Gang again along with his $30m of Chinese backing.
To shore up shaky confidence, Audi then accelerated its programme of buying up Sauber shares and acquired the full 100% in March this year. Yet the Sauber team has been no where this season and remains the only F1 outfit who have failed score a single point.
Audi had been chasing Carlos Sainz to join Nico Hulkenberg as their driver lineup, yet even the lure of an F1 works team appeared to not be enough to allay the Spaniard’s fears about the project. The recent sacking of Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffman who had been in charge of the Audi project and the recruitment of ex-Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto was just further evidence of turmoil within the team.
Alpine are fairing little better. Their five year programme to be winning races and competing for titles now lies in tatters. Team boss Bruno Famin embarrassed himself and the team in Monaco when he made a live TV rant about his driver Esteban Ocon.
In just a few days, Ocon announced he was leaving the team for 2025 despite having not signed a contract with any other F1 outfit.
Then in Barcelona, enter the master magician – Flavio Briatore – appointed special consultant to the Alpine his presence in the paddock was felt immediately. The former team boss managed to rain on Williams parade of its new driver and persuade Carlos Sainz to consider Alpine instead.
Further, the under powered Renault engine appears to be a cause for concern. Such that Briatore revealed the team were talking to Mercedes about becoming a customer outfit, ditching those produced at Viry-Chattilon base where Renault F1 engines have been produced since 1977.
Yesterday Alpine announced another appointment. One that sees acting team principal Bruno Famin leave his role to be replaced by Oliver Oakes who is the second youngest ever F1 team boss. Oakes is following in the steps of Christian Horner having set up junior formula Hitech GP in 2015 which competes in F2 and F3.
Horner set up his Arden junior formula outfit until Red Bull Racing came calling in 2005, following the energy drinks company’s purchase of the ailing Jaguar F1 team from Ford.
Talk of a Mercedes power unit for the former Renault F1 works team is a shocking proposition and a clear indicator how far from grace the French racing outfit have fallen from grace. It later emerged that staff at Viry Chatillon were unhappy with the development, with an anonymous employee telling French publication L’Equipe that ‘we might not start the cars’.
The threat of a walk out appears to have focused the minds at the Enstone HQ as now Bruno Famin explains the engineers have been given certain assurances.
“Everything which has been presented to the staff representatives and to the different governance bodies are talking about 2026,” says Famin.
Yet the breakup of what was Renault F1 now appears inevitable and the addition of Oakes as team principal opens other possibilities including the sale of the Alpine team to Hitech.
When the FIA opened the door to new F1 team applications last year, Hitech were among three others besides Andretti who completed the process. They were rejected by the sport’s governing body along with Rodin Carlin and start-up Asian effort LKYSUNZ.
General Motors have indicated they will build a new breed of F1 Powertrain for 2028, yet if Viry-Chattilon came up for sale, it would be a fast track route for the American motor giant to acquire the necessary skills required for its F1 project.
