How a decade of poor decisions has left Alpine alone on the F1 grid

“Renault had two options,” CEO Carlos Ghosn said, almost a decade ago. “To come back at 100 percent or leave. After a detailed study, I have decided that Renault will be in Formula 1.”

Ferrari, McLaren and Williams may be seen as the bedrock of Formula 1 but in many ways, Renault is right up there with them.

The French car manufacturer’s history in the sport dates as far back as 1977, the same year Williams joined, and in various guises, Renault has been on the grid ever since.

As an engine supplier, only three manufacturers have won more races. As a constructor, Renault are one of nine teams to have ever won multiple championships. Renault has made Fernando Alonso a World Champion. The Red Bull cars that Sebastian Vettel dominated in were powered by a Renault engine.

For a brand that should be part of the F1 elite, Renault, in its latest guise as Alpine, finds itself lost at sea.

It is almost a decade on since Renault announced they would be purchasing the Lotus team but it has not been the smoothest of rides since then.

Change is perhaps the best way to describe the 10 years that followed, not least because Ghosn himself would be forced to resign after being arrested for alleged financial misconduct, escaping Japan in a large box which was shipped as freight on a private jet.

If the path of the team was not quite as dramatic, it has also had its fair share of ups and downs.

But before we get to the what, we must first understand the why.

Formula 1 is unique in elite sport in the sense that teams are not created to win but to sell things because they win.

Manchester United were setup because nearby railway workers wanted to play the sport. Roger Federer picked up a tennis racket because he liked to play, not because he wanted to make money. Even in the kingdom of capitalism, NFL teams may move around but they are still named after the place they play in rather than the product of the owner’s company.

Formula 1 though is the world’s fastest billboard. Four of the top five car makers in the world have, or will soon have, a presence on the F1 grid.

Ferrari and Lamborghini are two of the biggest supercar makers in the world but ask most people to name their favourite brand and it is the one in red that wins races that most people will choose. The likes of Mercedes, Ford, Volkswagen and General Motors have all clamoured to get on the grid as a way of boosting their brand.

Renault have also been clear in how they see F1 – a way to sell cars. That statement by Ghosn was accompanied by talk of F1 being “the ultimate symbol of the passion for automobiles.” Formula 1 was a way of “promoting” awareness of the Renault brand and its “image in all its markets across the world.” Race on Sunday, sell on Monday.

But what separates Renault from the others is the lack of joined-up thinking or an overall long-term strategy.

Since they returned in 2016, five men have been the de facto team principal. After a brief stint with Fred Vasseur, Cyril Abiteboul was given control and his three seasons at the helm showed genuine progress.

Daniel Ricciardo was lured away from Red Bull and with him brought the first podium for nine years but Abiteboul’s decision to walk away ahead of the 2021 season and a rebrand to Alpine should have been the first warning sign that all was not well at Enstone.

With Ghosn otherwise engaged, in his place came Luca de Meo, an Italian with time at Fiat and Volkswagen on his CV, and with him, the “Renaultion.”

The new strategic plan was for the whole of Renault but also took aim at their F1 output. Abiteboul was given a ‘thank you but time to leave’ and it was made clear that whoever was in the team principal role would be a small cog in the part of a larger machine, unlike the all-encompassing styles of the likes of Christian Horner and Toto Wolff.

Ricciardo moved to McLaren, a damning indictment of where he believed the team was heading, and if there was concern that the lead driver and team principal had left, it was overshadowed by the return of Renault’s favourite son – Fernando Alonso.

Back from a retirement turned sabbatical, Alonso joined a team he hoped would be back at the top table some day. Without the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see why Alonso may have believed that.

A cost cap had meant Renault could have ambitions of once again being higher up the grid. They were a PU supplier, an almost necessity for a title-winning team, and had finished fifth in that season’s championship.

The experienced Otmar Szafnauer joined from Aston Martin in 2022 but as the Romanian American would later detail, it was too many cooks for an increasingly small kitchen.

De Meo was playing an active role in the F1 strategy but Laurent Rossi in his role as CEO of Alpine was a key voice in any discussions. Szafnauer would be the face in front of the media but for all intents and purposes, it would be Rossi and De Meo pulling the strings.

However, F1 does not operate in a vacuum. Between 2016 and 2019, Renault sold 1.1 million cars in Europe, a global pandemic had seen that number shrink to 679,000 by 2021. In 2021, the company reported a profit of 967 million euros following 2020’s eight billion loss. When the company itself is sinking, it can be easy to ignore an expensive extravagance such as Formula 1.

For the first few years, this committee was able to produce some clear decision-making that led to strong results. Alpine appointed former Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains staffer Matt Harman as technical director and the team finished 2022 fourth in the standings, leapfrogging McLaren and looking like a team on the up.

Three seasons later and McLaren are the favourites for both titles while Alpine have so far scored seven points.

Perhaps the ‘too many cooks’ metaphor explains why so many decisions seem to have slipped through Alpine’s fingers. Too often they have been bluffing and found themselves empty handed when the river is revealed.

The first example is with Alonso. The Spaniard let it be known he wanted a two-year deal after the end of the 2022 season, a request he deserved considering the 81 points he had just scored for the team.

Alpine ummed and ahhed so much so that when a vacancy appeared at Aston Martin, Lawrence Stroll jumped at the chance to replace his outgoing former world champion with another one.

If Alpine can be excused for letting a 41-year-old Alonso run down his contract, their handling of Oscar Piastri looks worse with every race win for the Australian.

Convinced a driver would somehow be satisfied with the promise of a race seat in a year’s time, they failed to do the proper due diligence in terms of contracts which led to manager Mark Webber offering Piastri’s services to McLaren, something they were willing to pay £10 million to make it happen by booting out Daniel Ricciardo.

Not for the first time, and not for the last, Alpine were looking like the ones left standing in a round of musical chairs. Terms were agreed with Pierre Gasly, a driver who had hit a ceiling in the Red Bull family, but while Gasly is a skilled competitor, it is fair to suggest he is not at the level of Alonso or now Piastri.

Away from the driver seats, there was further disruption with the surprise sacking of Szafnauer along with long-time servant Alan Permane midway through the 2023 season.

Rossi, revealing what life was like behind closed doors, had teared into the team after the Miami Grand Prix, calling them “amateurish”, “mediocre” and “bad.” He too paid the price, shuffled on to a different role and away from the F1 team. His parting gift was being called “an incapable leader who thinks he can overcome his incompetence by his arrogance” by the usually reserved Alain Prost.

In Szafnauer’s place came Bruno Famin but he would only last until August 2024 having overseen a season start that had Alpine failing to score a point in the first four races. It was under Famin that another figure reappeared in the Alpine paddock, one many thought had left F1 for good – Flavio Briatore.

The re-hiring of a convicted fraudster and former fugitive was a desperate act by De Meo to save the fledgling Formula 1 team. Famin was presented to the media like a Christmas turkey asked to explain why the farmer was the right choice and tasked with offering an explanation to a decision someone else had made. Famin insisted the two could co-inhabit but he was gone a month later.

If the appointment of Oliver Oakes seemed a move in the right direction, his sudden departure 10 months later suggests its back to square one.

Briatore then resumed a role he once used to order one of his drivers to cheat, a move that would have handed him a lifetime ban were it not for a court ruling.

But the chaos and lack of joined-up thinking has put Alpine at odds with every other team in the sport. Looking up and down the grid, it is clear to at least see the outlines of a long-term strategy for each constructor.

Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari all have targets they plan to achieve to win titles. Midfield teams like Williams, Aston Martin and Haas have clear plans of upward trajectories. Even the likes of Sauber have a plan for the future.

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But with Alpine, you get the sense that there is not much planning at all. Franco Colapinto, a driver Alpine spent millions on to bring in, has been given an initial run of just five races.

Jack Doohan, who had been with the team since 2022, has been burnt and if Piastri was not enough of a deciding factor, Doohan’s fate will be a warning for any young driver considering the Alpine academy.

The team have also announced the closure of their power unit factory, a decision that sees a history of Renault engines on the F1 grid pretty much every year since 1977 come to an end.

What then, is the goal of Renault in F1? To sell cars? To sell the team itself? To just get through the next race before worrying about the one after that?

Ghosn said in 2015 that Renault faced a choice – commit 100% or leave. It’s high time Renault commit to that mantra.

Read next: Franco Colapinto issues first statement after replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine