Renault plans to stop production of its Formula 1 engines, employees outraged by “a shameful abandonment” – Libération

On strike, the staff of the Alpine factory in Viry-Châtillon gathered in front of the group’s management in Boulogne-Billancourt, this Thursday, September 12, to protest the shutdown of its activity, a showcase of the French automobile industry for nearly fifty years. Around 500 jobs are threatened.

First of all, a curiosity. Know that it is possible to play The Marseillaise to a Formula 1 engine. There are a few false notes and it’s a bit metallic, but it’s technically feasible and we had to wait until this sound escaped from a CGT loudspeaker, this Thursday, September 12 in the morning in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), to discover it. Around 150 people, mostly striking employees of the Alpine F1 factory in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), had come to make their anger heard – and The Marseillaise remixed therefore – in front of the historic premises of the general management of Renault, parent company of Alpine.

The discontent arose in the middle of summer, at the end of July, when Alpine Racing staff representatives learned from their director, Philippe Krief, that Renault’s management wanted «transformer» their factory and end the manufacture of Formula 1 engines by 2026. This high-tech activity, which attracts the best French automotive engineers, has been based in Viry-Châtillon since 1977. So fifty years could soon be abruptly erased by the will of one man,