Flavio Briatore reassures Alpine: Luca De Meo’s departure won’t affect me or the team. Flavio Briatore reassures that Luca De Meo’s resignation as Renault CEO will not affect him or Alpine’s F1 team.

Luca De Meo and Renault, it’s goodbye
On the evening of Sunday, June 15, Renault announced the resignation of Luca De Meo from his role as CEO, effective July 15: “The board has started the process to appoint a new CEO based on the already defined succession plan and has expressed confidence in the quality and experience of the management team to continue and accelerate the transformation strategy of the Renault Group in this new phase.”

The Milan-based manager commented: “There comes a time in life when you know the work is done. At Renault Group, we have faced immense challenges in less than five years! We have achieved what many thought impossible.” According to Le Figaro, De Meo will become the CEO of the luxury group Kering.

What happens at Alpine?
Since taking office in 2020, Luca De Meo has been central to the difficult decisions Renault made for its Formula 1 team. These include the name change to Alpine, numerous leadership changes (Cyril Abiteboul, Marcin Budkowski, Otmar Szafnauer, Bruno Famin, and Oliver Oakes), the significant return of Flavio Briatore as executive consultant, and the most painful — the discontinuation of Alpine’s engine program, with Mercedes power units being used from 2026.
Just yesterday Autosport reported that the new team manager would be Steve Nielsen (formerly with several teams, most recently at the FIA).

Luca De Meo’s departure obviously raised questions, primarily about Alpine’s future in F1 or a potential sale, and secondarily about Briatore’s role, who was appointed by the former CEO and serves as his F1 activities advisor. In Montreal, Flavio Briatore was clear and stated that nothing will change: “What will change? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Nothing has changed for me. Neither for me nor for the team. And congratulations to Luca for his new job.”