PARIS (Reuters) – Representatives of Alpine Racing employees, meeting within the Social and Economic Committee (CSE), unanimously gave an unfavorable opinion on the Renault group’s project to transform its Viry-Chatillon site ( Essonne) and to stop the production of engines for Formula One there.

Renault formalized Monday in a press release the cessation of internal production of engines for its Alpine F1 team from 2026 and announced the transformation of the Viry-Chatillon site into a “center of excellence in engineering and high technology” from the end of 2024, focused on high-power electric and hydrogen engines.

Viry’s F1 activities, excluding the development of a new engine, are maintained until the end of the 2025 season and each employee will be offered a new position within Hypertech Alpine, declared the diamond group.

“In general, the cessation of the F1 engine, the lack of maturity of the projects provided and the loss of confidence in management pose a major risk of departure of critical skills from the Viry site”, reacted the CSE in a press release.

“Despite the turmoil of the last two months, the Viry team has continued to develop the power of the 2026 engine which Alpine is depriving itself of. This decision against the grain causes Alpine to miss out on its sporting history,” he said. he added.

The CSE, whose opinion is only advisory, also regretted that Director General Luca de Meo had rejected the partnership solutions that he had suggested to it.

At the beginning of July, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said he was “open” to supplying engines to Alpine from 2026 if the French manufacturer decided to no longer manufacture its own.

The following month, Viry employees accused Renault management of wanting to source from Mercedes and turning the page on a story that began in 1977 to significantly reduce its direct costs.

Around a hundred employees from the Renault Alpine site in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne) traveled to Monza (Italy) at the end of August, to the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix, to protest against Renault’s decision. The Viry site, which employs around 350 people, had also been the scene of well-attended strikes on several occasions.

(Written by Gilles Guillaume, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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