Alpine experienced their worst season in F1 since their rebrand of Renault for the 2021 campaign, but things are looking optimistic amid the French constructor’s new partnership with Mercedes.
The most recent campaign saw Alpine score just 22 points over the entirety of the 24-round calendar, with Pierre Gasly being the only driver who proved capable enough of taking the chequered flag in a points-paying position.
Their 10th-place finish in the constructors’ championship marked the first time that they finished at the bottom of the standings, but it can also be attributed to the fact that they were one of the first teams on the grid to shift the entirety of their focus onto the new era of regulations.
The 2025 term was swamped with instability. F1 rookie Jack Doohan was unfortunate to last just six races before they gave him the boot in favour of Franco Colapinto, and the Australian’s exit was followed by the resignation of team principal Oliver Oakes just days later.
However, with the dire campaign now behind them, the French constructor has a lot to be hopeful about next year.
Alpine are ‘ready to seize’ Formula 1 in 2026 with their Mercedes power unit
The biggest change for the Enstone-based constructor heading into 2026 is their new partnership with Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division.
Alpine lost their works team status after Renault ceased development at their Viry-Chatillon factory, forcing the F1 team to look elsewhere. The deal will see Alpine’s F1 cars being powered by Mercedes engines until the end of 2030 at the very least.
In recent years, Renault have been increasingly shifting away from their efforts in the single-seater motorsports category, with a 2023 sale of 24% of their shares in the F1 team being scooped up by a group of investors that includes golf icon Rory McIlroy and three-time NFL Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce.
According to a report from Motorsport Espana, the team are ‘ready to seize’ their new opportunity with German power following a year of ‘sacrifice and restraint’ in 2025.
In a social media post shared by the team, engineers fired up their 2026 challenger for the very first time, marking the official beginning of the French constructor as a customer outfit.
While being a customer team alleviates the headache that comes with building your own engine, it is paramount for engineers to build their chassis around the power unit that sits behind the driver’s cockpit.
If the synergy between aerodynamics and the engine isn’t optimal, it could throw even more spanners in the works as they try to build on their disastrous term last year.
Many figures in the F1 paddock believe Mercedes will have the dominant power unit this year
Due to Mercedes’ pure dominance in the opening years of the turbo-hybrid era, they have once again been tipped to emerge as the number one engine supplier when cars hit the track this year.
The German constructor nailed the engine formula that came into effect in 2014, but were usurped by the formidable partnership of Red Bull and Honda at the start of the current decade.
Many figures within the F1 paddock are sure that the Brackley-based outfit will be able to replicate the former prowess, and it could be a masterstroke in timing for Alpine if they do manage to pull it off.
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