Workers at Renault’s Viry-Châtillon base have criticised plans to close Formula 1 engine production, calling them a “betrayal”.
“Renault Group management plans to stop the engine production program for 2026 at Viry-Châtillon and choose another supplier, probably Mercedes.
The reason for this was significant savings: instead of 120 million dollars for development, you have to pay 17 million dollars a year for supplies. We do not believe that this justifies the destruction of a luxury facility in Viry-Châtillon, a betrayal of this legendary brand, by installing a Mercedes heart in our Formula 1 car of the Alpine brand.
We cannot allow the management of Alpine and the Renault Group to damage our image, so we ask Mr de Meo and the Board of Directors to reconsider this decision.
The aim was to fire the first Alpine 2026 engine by the end of the first half of 2024, a year and a half after the start of the project. On June 26, 2024, the RE26A engine was launched for the first time on stand n°6 in Viry-Châtillon. It lacks almost a third of the performance elements previously tested on the system bench, but the first test results are promising.
The RE26A is seen by everyone at Viry-Châtillon as a great success, an engine with great potential that can strengthen the ambitions of Alpine F1,” the Viry base said in a statement.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
