From and including the 2026 season, Renault is past as an engine supplier in Formula 1. The decision is due, among other things, to invisibility, says the car brand's director.
Renault will leave Formula 1 at the end of the 2025 season. And according to the car brand's director Luca de Meo, there is a good reason for that. He believes that the brand has become 'invisible' in Formula 1.
He tells this in an interview to the French media l'Equipe .
At the same time, de Meo makes it clear that the people at Renault's Formula 1 engine factory in Viry-Châtillon will now be moved to 'other projects'. Whether there are also layoffs in the air is unclear.
– It is a very emotional topic, first of all for me. I am very passionate about it. It's heartbreaking. It has not been an easy decision to make.
Renault, on the other hand, has not won a world championship since being the engine supplier for Red Bull. And that was way back in 2013.
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According to Luca de Meo, the situation in the country is no different than that the factory's Formula 1 project would have collapsed sooner or later if Renault had not called a halt now.
– We have become invisible. Two more years like this and the project would collapse completely. We have been in a downward spiral for three seasons now. We had to do something to make a change, says de Meo.
And that change will be Renault withdrawing completely from Formula 1. Instead, the association of the team, which is now called Alpine, enters into an engine supply agreement with Mercedes.
Mercedes, which in turn will lose Aston Martin as a customer from the 2026 season, as the team becomes Honda's factory venture in Formula 1. Like Renault, Honda had otherwise decided to leave Formula 1. Which means that Ford is now paying Red Bull for to build a Formula 1 engine.
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