Alpine F1 Team

Interesting facts

Renault F1 Team announced in September 2020 that it would race as Alpine from 2021, a rebrand meant to promote Renault's sports car division, the Alpine marque, while the outfit's factory-team status stayed unchanged. The team principal role became a revolving door: Marcin Budkowski left in January 2022, replaced first by Davide Brivio, recruited from Suzuki's MotoGP team, and then by Otmar Szafnauer, who arrived from Aston Martin. Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane left the team mid-season, during the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix weekend, after a collision between drivers Ocon and Gasly caused serious internal tension. Flavio Briatore, who had run the team in the 2000s before leaving over the 2008 Singapore 'Crashgate' scandal, returned as an advisor in May 2024, and by mid-2025 was effectively running the team again. In June 2023 an investor group led by RedBird Capital Partners and Maximum Effort Investments bought a 24% stake in Alpine for €200 million, backed by celebrities including NFL player Patrick Mahomes and golfer Rory McIlroy. The team's only win to date came from Esteban Ocon at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix - the first victory for a French driver racing for a French team since Olivier Panis's triumph in Monaco in 1996. In late September 2024 Renault announced it would end its own engine program after 2025, meaning Alpine switched to customer Mercedes power units from 2026 onward. Alpine F1 Team has been competing in Formula 1 since 2021 as a French team. The team scored a total of 603 constructors' championship points. The team's best season was 2022, when it finished 4th in the Constructors' Championship with 173 points.