Alpine says it would be receptive to partnering with another Formula 1 team but that it is not essential for its development in the future.
Alpine is the only Formula 1 team currently powered by parent company Renault, following McLaren’s decision to return to Mercedes power.
Mercedes also supplies Aston Martin and Williams, Ferrari has affiliations with Alfa Romeo and Haas, while Red Bull has its own two teams, both of which are powered by Honda engines.
It is the first time since 2006 that Renault’s engines have supplied only one team.
“You have to understand that because of the sheer nature of the business you need the F1 team is central to the business you need today,” said Alpine’s CEO Laurent Rossi.
“So I think a partner team would be nice to have but not a must have, because we’re building on the current F1 team, we need full autonomy, full independence, full dedication to the F1 team and itself, and leveraging it.
“[You need to be] able to reap the fruit for the business you need so building a partner team, could be a nice to have down the road but it’s not something we’re actively seeking at the moment.”
Rossi accepted that there are positives and negatives to Alpine’s current situation.
“The pros are that we can dedicate all our efforts on designing our own engine and fitting it into our own car, which is a big pro because you’re not distracted by other activities and you can really leverage the fact that you are a manufacturer,” he said.
“The cons could be the fact that you might lose a little bit of the core developments that you could get by having running two or several teams in parallel.
“But frankly, it could be outweighed very quickly should you have any problems.
“One of the cons could be that if you are designated to provide the benefit to you to another team if you have not been prepared for that, you will need to increase the workforce consistently so I’m not sure it’s a very desirable effect.
“At the end of the day we’re pretty happy supplying ourselves at the moment.”
Discussion about this post