What we learned about Renault's F1 engine shutdown

Renault has opened up on the reasons behind its decision to abandon being an F1 engine manufacturer

Renault's decision to end its Formula 1 works engine project has been one of the biggest stories of the 2024 season.

The move, only made official last week, has triggered huge controversy within the factory walls at Viry-Chatillon, where the French manufacturer's F1 power units have been made since the 1970s.

But while abandoning its own engine in favour of a customer Mercedes deal for the Alpine F1 team is seismic, it was pretty interesting that the news was tucked away in a sentence in a press release that was instead focused more on the transformation of its engine facility into a high-tech engineering centre.

It added to the intrigue of why things were changing in such a dramatic way, with Alpine's current leadership duo of team principal Oliver Oakes and F1 advisor Flavio Briatore both being clear that the change of engine plan was instigated by management above them.

But the first answers have now appeared, with Renault CEO Luca de Meo offering some fascinating explanations of the motivations behind the call in an exclusive interview with French newspaper L'Equipe.

Money talks

While Renault's engine staff had repeatedly talked about the 2026 engine project being on target with its performance figures, de Meo has said that while the call was "heartbreaking" it was the bottom-line financial figures that talked in the end.

"I am a manager. I run a listed company," he said. "I have to rethink the F1 project, to finally win.

"So I am looking for shortcuts to achieve this. We have become invisible. Another two years like this and the project would completely deflate. We have been on a downward slope for three seasons. We had to shake all that up. With a financial logic in mind."

For de Meo, the huge investment required to produce an engine – which is in the hundreds of millions of dollars – made zero sense when a cheaper customer power unit could be slotted in that would deliver just as much, if not more, performance for less than $20 million.

"Real enthusiasts are not concerned by this calculation. I am," he said.

De Meo went on to explain that the new rules coming for 2026 – with a greater reliance on efficiency and battery power – put things in an ever sharper focus when it came to costs.

He said Viry, with 340 staff on F1, could have no chance of competing with Mercedes, who he suggests employs 900.

He added: "They have test benches that we don't have. The transition to the hybrid era required powerful investments that were underestimated at the time. We operate, structurally, with three cylinders when others have eight.

"When I arrived four years ago, the group wanted to stop F1. If it's still there, it's because I saved the thing. But we don't have the structure to be at the forefront of battery chemistry development, software management, energy recovery.

"It's not just putting an engine on the bench and saying: 'Hey boss, I'm doing 415 kW!'"

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday no more

F1 has long been a valuable marketing tool for engine manufacturers, who have counted on success being followed through by showroom sales.

But de Meo suggests the links between F1 and road cars have become blurred now, as people associate car brands with different things.

Aston Martin's success on track, for example, should deliver an uptick in its own road car sales. The same is true for McLaren. De Meo is clear that the value of building your own engine now has disappeared.

"The sponsors come for a team, not for an engine," he said. "The partners sign with McLaren, not with Mercedes under the hood. The F1 public has changed. It has expanded to include young people, women. This new clientele has a different interpretation of this sport.

"We support a driver, a colour, a brand. Not an engine. Alpine, given our ranking, is losing bonuses. Sponsors are rare. We have a hole. My shareholders know how to count. Alpine must make money."

He also said that his dream of making a French super team ultimately failed because the country failed to get behind it.

"I wanted to make a French team, the French Ferrari," he said. "I put two French drivers in the seats: they crashed into each other.

"Take a tour of an A524 with me, there is not a single French sponsor. Not one! I knocked on many doors. In vain…"

The vultures are circling

While Renault and Alpine have guaranteed jobs for the staff who were previously employed on its F1 engine project, de Meo accepts that not all may be willing to take on different roles.

But he has revealed that those who want to stay on in F1 may be well placed, with rivals already having been in touch about luring them elsewhere.

De Meo added: "If there are some who are positively driven by the idea of making an F1 engine, they will have no problem repositioning themselves.

"Fred Vasseur, the boss of the Ferrari team, called us to ask if he could get some people out of our company and avoid them having gardening leave before going to work for them. OK. That's life. We're not going to imprison our guys."

The ongoing sale rumours

It was suggested earlier this year that Renault closing down its F1 engine project was a key step in it putting its team up for sale.

This is something that has been repeatedly denied and de Meo has yet again explained why it makes no sense to go through with it.

He says that, with the value of teams continuing to skyrocket under F1's boom, that there is no reason to offload the operation.

"I receive calls every 15 days from financiers, eccentrics. who want to enter F1," he said. "They know that after 2026 it will cost much more.

"If you are given £1 billion today to take the team, they will be able to resell it for double, two years later. It is full of speculators here.

"I have refused 50 times. A team will soon be worth between $3 and 5 billion. I am not going to sell; I am not stupid.

"Being in F1 is essential for the Alpine brand. We are in a closed club. It gives credibility to the brand among car enthusiasts. We do not need this money."