By Mark Gero
Of all the teams that could take advantage of the new rules in 2026, one of them is switching up on having a new engine, and this comes from a project that began the year before and hopefully will transform this team into a race winner, and perhaps a championship team.
Alpine began their chance of redoing their 2026 car back last summer, when it seemed that their current model just could not perform. With the rules at that time permitting the French team from continuing with making upgrades for that year, it was time for the Enstone squad to prepare for the following season to not only change the chassis but expect to also change what was put inside the car to make it fast.
Last September, owners of the Alpine team, the Renault Group, decided with the persuasion of ex-president Luca De Meo and the current advisor to the team, Flavio Briatore, decided that the Renault engine was too slow and above all, too expensive to continue. It would save the team millions of Euros if the power plant was contracted out by someone else. With Briatore’s assistance in the connection with Mercedes Toto Wolff, plus the withdrawal of the Aston Martin team to change to Honda engines, the deal as reached to supply Alpine with the Stuttgart engines for the next four seasons and change the Renault factory in Viry-Chatillon, France to a research and development centre.
This result now comes out to the development from last week, the team, along with the assistance of co-sponsor MSC Cruises, launched the entry of the A526 model, in which the new Mercedes engine, along with the long months of the research and development of the chassis, finally was available to test.
And the testing would start this week, as Alpine will go to the opening shakedown of the 11 teams to the Circuit de Catalunya north of Barcelona, Spain to begin what the team will hopefully be a successful car to face the best in the business from Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
For Briatore himself, it was the Mercedes engine package that interested him the most, for if it was not for this, he would not have stayed on the team, realizing that this could be the problem that mainly would be solved.
“The moment when Luca de Meo was talking about joining the team, [there was] only one condition for me to join the team, which was to have a Mercedes-Benz engine,” he revealed. “here was no plan B, it was only one plan.
“I wanted a Mercedes-Benz engine completely. There was only one way to come back, because in this moment, you need to be with the best people.
And the people of Mercedes, we started working together and it was promising. It’s surprising, the ways that the people [at Mercedes] are collaborating with us.
“It’s a super, super relationship. This is what we’re looking for.”
But it is not just the engine that could make a difference, as the whole package, including the chassis finally works out, then it will be a triumph for a team that needs to get back up the grid to receive the respect for such hard work that they put the project into months ahead of schedule.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 