No more Formula 1
The official announcement by Renault of its decision to leave Formula 1 at the end of the 2025 season, thus transforming the Alpine team into a customer team (almost certainly powered by Mercedes), inevitably left its mark. So it’s no surprise that today a harsh letter has been issued by team employees, particularly concerned about the future of the historic Viry-Châtillon factory, whose fate — without the production of F1 engines — now hangs by a thin thread.
Renault has guaranteed all affected employees the offer of a position within the recently launched ‘Hypertech Alpine’ project in Viry.
Nonetheless, Alpine Racing staff, representing employees and the majority of stakeholders, released an official statement expressing they are “saddened” and “regret the decision to stop the production of F1 engines in 2026.”
The anger of Viry employees
In the letter, among several points raised, there is also a reference to the rejection of a proposal presented to Renault’s top management for 2026: “The partnership solutions were rejected by the Group, even though they would have achieved several goals: maintaining F1 activity, reducing development and management costs, retaining all skills, and the possibility of bringing an already well-developed and promising RE26 engine.”
“The Viry-Châtillon site — it was also highlighted in the letter — will reduce from 500 to 334 jobs on January 1, with the end of many service provider contracts. […] For all these reasons, the CSE staff representatives unanimously expressed a negative opinion on the transformation project. We call on public authorities to defend the sustainability of jobs at the Viry-Châtillon site,” the statement concludes.
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