A Mercedes engine is no guarantee of a more competitive future for Alpine F1. This is the opinion of James Vowles, boss of the Williams team, which is powered by Mercedes, which is developing regularly under his leadership.
Alpine team owner Renault has made the dramatic decision to scrap its production Formula 1 engine program for 2026 and almost certainly buy a Mercedes power unit instead.
“I see a question mark with Alpine” Vowles told Auto Motor und Sport. “Even if they buy engines from Mercedes, they are far behind. We have been working with Mercedes since 2014 and we are already in the middle of the 2026 project with them. You can’t just screw an engine in the back and hope that that works.”
“And Alpine is still on a downward trend. We have to stop it first before we start the recovery. At Williams, we are already past that point. We started the process a year or two ago and we are already reasonably stable.”
Oliver Oakes has been hired by Alpine to lead the Enstone team through the current crisis, but Flavio Briatore supports him as executive advisor. Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, however, sees a problem with the 74-year-old Italian.
“He is of course not the youngest anymore, and it shows. I hope he can continue to do it, because it takes an incredible effort to travel all over the world” Schumacher said.
“If I had to say who looks younger between Dr. (Helmut) Marko and Flavio, I have to admit that Marko gives me the impression of being fresher – but he is actually a little older, or even a lot older .”
