The Alpine F1 Team carries one of the most complicated lineages in Formula One. Its roots stretch back decades, winding through different names, different owners, and vastly different eras of performance. For fans who have followed the team through its various incarnations—as Toleman, Benetton, Renault, and now Alpine—the journey has been a rollercoaster of brilliant highs and frustrating lows.
In recent years, however, the trajectory has pointed mostly downward. And in 2024, the team made a decision that shocked much of the paddock: Renault, the parent company, chose to step back from its role as a full works constructor. It was a turning point that raised real questions about what Alpine would become and whether the team's best days were already behind it.
A Legacy Built Across Decades
To understand where Alpine stands today, it helps to look at where it came from. The Enstone-based operation first entered Formula One in 1981 as Toleman Motorsport. That team gave Ayrton Senna his F1 debut in 1984, and while the car was rarely competitive, it showed flashes of potential that hinted at bigger things ahead.
The transformation came when Benetton took over in 1986. Under the Benetton banner, the team won its first Grand Prix in 1994 and claimed back-to-back Drivers' Championships with Michael Schumacher in 1994 and 1995. The Constructors' Championship came in 1995 as well. Those years represented the peak of what the Enstone facility could achieve, and they established a winning culture that would define the team's ambitions for decades to come.
Renault acquired the team in 2000 and began investing heavily. By 2005, the results were spectacular. Fernando Alonso, then just 24 years old, became the youngest world champion in history at the time, ending Schumacher's run of five consecutive titles. He defended his crown in 2006, and Renault also won both Constructors' Championships. The R25 and R26 cars were engineering marvels—reliable, fast, and driven with aggression by a Spaniard at the peak of his powers.
But the years that followed brought turbulence. A race-fixing scandal in 2008 damaged the team's reputation. Ownership changed hands multiple times. Performance fluctuated wildly, with occasional podiums mixed among seasons spent languishing in the midfield.
The Rebrand to Alpine
In 2021, Renault made a strategic decision to rebrand the team as Alpine, named after its sports car subsidiary. The move was meant to give the F1 program a fresh identity and to raise the profile of the Alpine road car brand globally. With a striking blue livery and new marketing direction, the team entered a new chapter.
That first Alpine season was actually quite strong. Esteban Ocon won the Hungarian Grand Prix in chaotic wet-to-dry conditions, delivering one of the most memorable victories of the year. Alonso, who had returned to the team after a two-year absence, showed he still had the speed, particularly at circuits like Qatar where he finished on the podium. Alpine secured fifth in the Constructors' Championship—a respectable result that suggested the team was moving in the right direction.
The 2022 season brought mixed feelings. The new ground-effect regulations reshuffled the competitive order, and Alpine managed to finish fourth in the standings, its best result in years. But there were internal tensions. Alonso grew frustrated with what he perceived as a lack of ambition and commitment from the organization. At the end of the year, he left for Aston Martin—a decision that stunned the team and left a leadership vacuum.
Alpine replaced him with Pierre Gasly, pairing the Frenchman alongside Ocon in an all-French lineup that made thematic sense given the team's identity. On paper, it looked promising. In reality, the performance began to slide.
The Decline
The 2023 season was a significant step backward. The A523 car lacked consistency and was particularly weak in slow-speed corners. Both drivers struggled to score points regularly, and the team dropped to sixth in the standings. Off-track, organizational instability continued. Team principal Otmar Szafnauer left mid-season, as did sporting director Alan Permane—two figures who had been central to the operation.
Laurent Rossi, the CEO of Alpine Cars who had overseen the F1 program, was also moved aside. The revolving door of leadership made it difficult for the team to establish a coherent technical direction. Engineers need stability and clear goals; Alpine offered neither.
By 2024, the situation had worsened further. The car was uncompetitive from the opening race, often qualifying in the back half of the grid. Ocon and Gasly did what they could, but the machinery beneath them simply wasn't good enough. Internal morale suffered, and rumors about the team's long-term future began circulating almost immediately.
The Decision to Step Back
The biggest story of 2024, though, wasn't about lap times or race results. It was about Renault's strategic choice to cease engine development at its Viry-Châtillon facility and instead become a customer team, purchasing power units from Mercedes starting in 2026.
This was a seismic shift. Renault had been an engine manufacturer in Formula One since the turbo era of the 1980s. Its engines powered world championships not only for its own team but also for Red Bull during the Sebastian Vettel era. Walking away from that legacy was not a decision taken lightly.
The reasoning, as explained by Alpine's leadership, was financial and practical. Developing a competitive F1 engine under the new 2026 regulations required massive investment—potentially hundreds of millions of euros. Given the team's midfield position and the uncertain return on that investment, the board concluded that buying engines from a proven supplier made more business sense.
For the staff at Viry-Châtillon, many of whom had dedicated their careers to Renault's F1 engine program, the news was devastating. Some were redeployed to other Renault projects; others faced redundancy. It marked the end of an era in French motorsport.
What Comes Next
As Alpine transitions to customer status, the team faces a fundamentally different competitive reality. A works constructor has full control over how the engine and chassis integrate. A customer team must build its car around someone else's power unit, which introduces packaging constraints and limits the degree of optimization.
That said, customer teams can succeed. McLaren won races in 2024 with a Mercedes engine. Racing Point (now Aston Martin) showed that a well-run customer operation can punch above its weight. The key is having the right people, the right processes, and the right culture.
Alpine's current driver lineup for 2025 and beyond remains a topic of speculation. Gasly has been confirmed for 2025, but the second seat has been the subject of frequent discussion. Ocon departed at the end of 2024, and the team explored various options, including young talent from its academy and experienced hands from elsewhere on the grid.
There's also the question of ownership. Renault has reportedly been open to selling a significant stake in the team—or even the entire operation—to outside investors. Multiple parties have been linked, though concrete deals have been slow to materialize. The value of an F1 franchise has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to the sport's growing global popularity and the commercial success of the Netflix series Drive to Survive. Any new owner would be acquiring not just a racing team but a piece of one of the world's most exclusive sports leagues.
The Emotional Weight of It All
For long-time followers of this team, the current situation carries a certain melancholy. This is the same Enstone operation that watched Schumacher mature into a legend, that nurtured Alonso's brilliance, that defied the odds with Ocon's Hungary victory. The walls of that factory have seen championship celebrations and bitter defeats, political scandals and technical triumphs.
Formula One is ultimately a business, and businesses make decisions based on spreadsheets and strategy rather than sentiment. Renault's choice to scale back its F1 involvement is rational, even if it stings for those who dreamed of seeing Alpine back on the top step regularly.
Still, the sport has a way of surprising people. Teams written off as irrelevant have come back before. New regulations create new opportunities. A change of ownership could bring fresh capital and fresh ideas. The 2026 rule reset, with its emphasis on electrical power and sustainable fuels, will reshuffle the competitive order in ways nobody can fully predict.
Alpine may yet find its way back. The infrastructure at Enstone remains solid. The team has institutional knowledge that spans four decades. And despite everything, there are people inside that organization who refuse to accept mediocrity as the permanent state of affairs.
Whether that fire is enough to overcome the structural challenges ahead—that's the question no one can answer yet. But in Formula One, hope is never entirely irrational, even when the odds look long.