Renault is unlikely to return to Formula 1 as a factory engine manufacturer unless the rules are simplified, admits group CEO Luca de Meo.
F1 engine manufacturers preparing for the radical new regulations for 2026, including Ferrari, Audi and Red Bull Powertrains, are already said to be recruiting staff from the Alpine factory in Viry-Chatillon.
The move will save Renault-owned Alpine hundreds of millions of dollars in engine development costs, and de Meo believes the switch to Mercedes customer power units from 2026 will also be a performance gain.
“Let’s be clear. If you go and visit, as we did, a factory like HPP, the Mercedes engine factory, you will see that 900 people work there.”
“We have 340 employees for our engines. They have test benches that we don’t have.”
Renault’s current problems with its F1 engines date back to the last major regulation change, when naturally aspirated engines were replaced by today’s hybrid power units.
“The transition to the hybrid era required major investments that we underestimated at the time,” He will admit of me.
“To give a picture, we work ‘structurally’ with three cylinders, while others have eight. We simply don’t have the structure to be at the forefront of development.”
“When I arrived four years ago, the group wanted to stop F1. If it’s still there, it’s because I saved the thing. But we are not at the forefront of developing battery chemistry , software management, energy recovery…”
He also sees other problems with Formula 1’s rules.
“The reward structure in Formula 1 does not take into account the investments that manufacturers’ teams have to make. So we spend more than others, but get no benefit from it.
“In the long term, Formula 1 could – who knows – propose technological simplification,” he added, justifying the creation of an F1 monitoring group in Viry which will monitor how the next regulatory cycle takes shape. from 2030.
“They could offer an engine without hybridization, for example – without electrification – which makes noise again and which runs on e-fuel (synthetic fuel) for the green image.”
