Alpine F1 Shake-up Ramping Up, Team Principal Bruno Famin Leaving Team

• On Friday, Alpine team principal Bruno Famin confirmed that he will leave his current role at the end of August.

• Famin become team's boss during the 2023 season.

• Meanwhile, Renault's exit as an engine supplier is also a blow to Formula 1 ahead of its new engine regulations for 2026, reducing the number of power unit manufacturers from six to five.

Alpine Formula 1 team principal Bruno Famin will leave his position by the end of August after only a year in the role.

It is the latest change at a team that has undergone extensive restructuring across the past 12 months and which has struggled for on-track performance.

Famin was promoted to team principal in mid-2023 after the outfit split from Otmar Szafnauer, who had only been in the role for 18 months. On Friday, Famin confirmed that he will leave his current role at the end of next month and head up the motorsport activities within the Renault Group at its engine base at Viry-Chatillon, France.

Famin’s also confirmed that Renault is actively seeking to end its Formula 1 power unit project for 2026, when new rules are introduced, and for Alpine to instead revert to customer team status.

Alpine has not yet communicated a replacement for Famin, or any timeline.

Alpine is eighth in this year’s Constructors’ Championship amid a lack of pace from its flawed A524, has restructured its technical division following a raft of personnel changes and has faced questions over the future of the organization.

The intention is for personnel currently working on the Formula 1 power unit project to be reallocated elsewhere within the company—avoiding any job losses—while Alpine’s Formula 1 team would switch to becoming a customer team from 2026.

The team has been in dialogue in recent weeks with Mercedes over a power unit supply, as the German marque is losing Aston Martin as a customer from 2026, due to its switch to becoming Honda’s sole partner.

“We have presented a transformation project at the level of the Alpine brand, which is still developing, to make it known outside of France, everywhere in the world,” Famin said.

“The project, which has been presented at the beginning of the week to the staff representatives in Viry, is to reallocate the resources from one side to another, one side being the development of the Formula 1 power unit, which is already made in Viry, to dedicate those resources and skills to developing new technologies for the new project of the brand.

“One of the consequences of this project, if it is accepted, would be then for Alpine F1 Team to buy the power unit instead of developing its own power unit, then we will have more resources to develop the brand, and a different power unit to race for the Formula 1 team.”

While Renault would remain in Formula 1 through its majority ownership and control of the team, such a move would end the company’s lengthy spell as an engine supplier.

It also demonstrates a lack of belief in its nascent 2026 engine project, with Renault’s power unit regularly the slowest and least reliable of the current competitors.

It is also a blow to Formula 1 ahead of its new engine regulations for 2026, reducing the number of power unit manufacturers from six to five, with Renault’s expected exit counterbalanced by the creation of the Red Bull Powertrains-Ford partnership and the arrival of Audi.

Famin cautioned that due to strict French labor laws the acceptance of such a plan “can take one week, it can take two months” but emphasized that “as soon as possible will be best for the team, and everyone at Enstone [where Alpine’s chassis are designed] to know [what power unit] to design the 2026 car for.”

Famin was insistent that Renault’s expected exit as a power unit manufacturer is not a sign that it is wavering in its commitment to Alpine.

“No, the F1 project remains a key project for the Alpine brand,” he said. “It’s thanks to F1 that we want to develop the brand globally, that remains, but the project is just reallocating the resources to develop the brand better, always based on the pillar of motorsport.”

Alpine has Pierre Gasly under contract on a multi-year deal from 2025 but has yet to announce its second driver.