New Alpine F1 engine update as power unit staff hold talks with Renault'

Alpine's power unit staff have released an audio recording of the start-up of their F1 2026 engine, as confirmation on the future of the Viry factory remains unclear.

The Renault Group has made clear its intention to switch to a customer powertrain for F1 2026 and to transform the Viry-Chatillon powerplant into a production center for Renault's automotive work.

Viry employees meet Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo

As revealed by PlanetF1.com A key objective for Viry-Chatillon staff over the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix was to meet with Luca de Meo, CEO of the Renault Group, and present their arguments for continuing F1 activities at the factory.

Viry has been in the business of designing Formula 1 engines for over 40 years and the staff are keen to carry on and honour this heritage by continuing to build engines to represent the Renault Group in F1 – especially as a Renault-owned Formula 1 team continues to be involved in the sport.

On Friday, De Meo travelled to Viry to meet with employees who said they are still waiting for a decision on the proposal made to them to start the transformation process.

PlanetF1.com assumes that the next deadline for both sides to submit proposals and counterarguments is September 30th. This date serves as a cut-off date for the ongoing negotiations.

Following the meeting with De Meo, the staff of Viry, a legal entity called Comite Social et Economique (CSE), released a statement.

“Following their meeting with Mr De Meo, Alpine Racing's staff representatives would like to thank the management of the Renault Group for the opportunity to discuss the matter with them and for the quality of the discussions during the meeting,” they said.

“The efforts and concrete proposals of the Viry-Chatillon delegation seem to have been well received by the management of the Renault Group, which continues to address the issue of maintaining F1 activities at the French site.

“As things stand, there remains a risk of a standstill in F1 engine development in France and the risk of losing unique know-how at a time when the industry in France needs to develop its talent and consolidate its national cooperation network.

“Staff representatives remain mobilized, determined and ready to listen to employees. Preparations for future measures are ongoing and we will communicate on this issue in the coming days.”

The meeting comes on the same day that staff released an audio clip of their F1 2026 engine allegedly exceeding performance benchmarks set at the time when started on a test bench.

🚨Ceci is an exclusive, the engine at full throttle in 2026. #ViryOnTrack pic.twitter.com/lWmS74HulH

– La Voix De Viry (@LaVoixDeViry) 20 September 2024

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In conversation with PlanetF1.com In Monza, Clement Gamberoni, a representative of the Viry workforce, said that he believed the F1 project could continue directly in parallel with the work proposed by the Renault Group for the facility.

“We are not against anything,” he said.

“If our top management seeks new projects for us, we agree to take on these projects. However, we believe that Formula 1 must have all of these competencies.”

“It also means the challenge that Formula 1 brings every day, to be at the top. Then we can also work on other projects and be at the top of that other project, but we think it's not possible to just do other projects at Viry like we do. That's why we're not entirely confident of keeping all the jobs.”

Our wish is to run Viry’s 2026 F1 engine in the Alpine 2026 – that is our ultimate goal.

“The chance is very small, but we want to give Luca arguments so that he might see things differently than with a less risky engine, Mercedes or whatever, but take more risks and maybe have a better engine that is better integrated into a factory team where Enstone and Viry work together.”

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