On Monday, Renault announced its decision to stop its F1 power unit operations at the Viry-Châtillon plant, bringing months of speculation to an end.

Though talks reportedly took place in September, the French manufacturer unsurprisingly chose to cancel the 2026 power unit program, resulting in Alpine returning to customer engine status starting from that season.

The evaluation of Renault's F1 power unit program closure has been ongoing for several months, during which the Viry employees also protested against the shutdown at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza at the end of August.

However, their big efforts ultimately fell short, and Alpine is expected to use Mercedes engines starting in the 2026 season.

Regarding the situation, Alpine staff, acting on behalf of employees and the majority of stakeholders, have released a statement, which says the following:

"All staff representatives, representing the voice of employees and a majority of stakeholders, regret and deplore the decision to stop F1 engines in 2026.

"This choice is endorsed by the group, which wishes to reduce the financial risk surrounding F1, even though no serious study has been conducted to assess the impact on future sales and the prestige of the brand."

With this closure, the team will be the first in the turbo-hybrid era to relinquish its full works status and switch to a customer supply. All impacted employees will be offered positions in the newly launched 'Hypertech Alpine' project at Viry.

The statement then added: "Partnership solutions were rejected by the Group, even though they would have made it possible to meet several objectives: maintaining an F1 activity, reducing development and operating costs, maintaining all skills, the possibility of bringing an already largely developed and promising RE26 engine until the 2026 season.

"The content, resources and sustainability of the new projects that Management wishes to bring to Viry still appear largely imprecise.

"The communicated sizing of the F1 monitoring unit (staff and budget) still seems too low, and calls into question the potential return of Alpine as an engine manufacturer in the long term.

"The history of the Viry site shows that contrary decisions have often been taken, and demonstrates the importance of maintaining highly qualified skills for the future in order to leave the door open to a return to F1 when the regulations and the financial context of the shareholder make it more attractive."

In summary, the CSE statement expresses concern that the Viry-Chatillon site will lose jobs, dropping from 500 to 334 by January 1, and that many service providers will lose their contracts.

It believes this could lead to an additional 100 indirect job losses among main partners by the end of the year.

The statement also mentions that the Alpine Mechanical Excellence Competition, a government-supported apprenticeship aimed at promoting equal opportunities and diversity, will come to an end.

"We call on the public authorities to defend the sustainability of employment on the Viry-Châtillon site,” the statement concluded.

If Alpine chooses to become a customer of Mercedes, they will join McLaren, Williams, and Mercedes itself as the fourth team on the grid powered by the German engine.