ALPINE F1 TEAM ‘VERY MUCH’ UP FOR SALE DECLARES DAVID COULTHARD

Former F1 driver David Coulthard believes Alpine, having shut down their F1 engine operations, could be “very much” up for sale.

Although Renault first entered Formula 1 back in 1977, the French manufacturer’s commitment to the sport as a works team has blown hot and cold.

Is Alpine for sale? David Coulthard believes so

While Renault-powered cars have won 12 Constructors’ Championships and 11 Drivers’ titles, as a works team their tally is two and two. Those two years of back-to-back success came in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso triumphant with the Renault F1 team.

But in the years that followed Renault were embroiled in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix Crashgate scandal, sold the team to Lotus, returned under the Renault name in 2016 and then rebranded the team ‘Alpine’ in 2021.

Racing as Alpine, the team recorded a victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix where Esteban Ocon held off Lewis Hamilton to win, but while they recorded four podiums since, including a double at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, movement behind the scenes has raised questions about the team’s future.

Last year Renault shut down their Formula 1 programme at Viry-Chatillon, scrapping the 2026 engine project and rebranding the factory ‘Hypertech Alpine’. Alpine will instead run Mercedes engines in F1 2026 meaning the F1 outfit will no longer be a works team.

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It has Coulthard questioning whether Renault want to sell their Alpine F1 team.

It’s a question he put to former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer in a preview for the latest Formula For Success podcast.

“The journey onto Alpine, you spent a relatively short period of time there,” Coulthard told Szafnauer. “Was that just because you realised quite quickly that the owners of Alpine were in turmoil as we now know?”

“They’ve decided they don’t want to make engines anymore,” continued the Scot, “so they’re closing down Viry which was the location that created so many successful Renault engines over the years.

“It looks to me, these are my words, I’m not trying to put words in your mouth, it looks very much like they’re just trying to package that asset to sell it on, with the elevated valuations that F1 has today.

“Did you just sense or feel that this wasn’t something for the long term?”

Alpine bosses, however, denied such claims about the team being up for sale several times last year.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo insisted to Autocar in June: “I want to make this very clear. There is no way we are going to give up. It’s not my style.

“We will not sell even a part of this thing. We don’t need the money. I’ve had people making offers left and right, then talking in the press about it.

“But we’re not interested. It would be stupid and I won’t do it.”

Alpine executive directive Flavio Briatore reiterated this two months later, saying: “Something is very clear. Nothing is for sale.

“Luca de Meo doesn’t want to sell the team. Question finito [finished].”

Read next: Jack Doohan’s testy response to Franco Colapinto Alpine question

2025-02-18T13:35:41Z