Alpine instead of Aston Martin?
Audi and Red Bull PowerTrains-Ford in, Renault out. It cannot be ruled out that the new 2026 regulation relating to power units – goodbye to the MGU-H, 100% synthetic fuels and the electrical part of equal importance with the thermal part in terms of power delivery – in the end it will lead to just one more engine engineer regarding the engines at the start in F1. There are currently four power unit suppliers for ten teams (Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda and Renault) and in 2026 the six expected with the entry of Audi and RBPT-Ford could go down to five.
The reason is linked to the fact that Alpine is in a technical crisis and a shortcut to solve at least a good part of the problems would be to become a customer team with regards to the supply of power units. The Renault engine is the worst of the lot and the Viry-Chatillon plant would need out-of-reach investments to catch up with those that churn out Ferrari, Mercedes and Honda power units.
According to what was reported by the German newspaper F1-insider.com Flavio Briatoreworking on behalf of Luca De Meo and Alpine as a super consultant to set up a competitive team in 2026, is negotiating the supply of Mercedes power units for Alpine starting from 2026. The relations between Briatore and Toto Wolff are very good. The Mercedes engine is currently credited with being the most competitive in view of the new regulation and the house of the three-pointed star will lose a customer since Aston Martin will be the official team of Honda, which will leave Red Bull and Racing Bulls at the end of 2025. The other power unit suppliers are certainly not excluded a priori by Alpine which at this point seems determined to stop building its own engines, but Mercedes is the first choice and there would also be availability from this last given that, in fact, on a numerical level Alpine would replace Aston Martin.
