Outgoing Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin has said that Formula 1’s financial rules have driven the French marque from ditching its engine production in favour of becoming a customer team.
Famin will step down as Team Principal of Alpine’s F1 team at the end of August in order to focus full-time on a period of great transition at the marque’s Viry-Chatillon power unit production facility.
Alpine has made plans to cease production of its own power units and is seeking a technical partnership with Mercedes to become a customer entry in Formula 1.
Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Famin explained that the financial incentive of becoming a customer team instead of an OEM is the main driver behind the change.
“It’s a fact that the business model, to call it like that, is a bit weird,” he said.
“We know with the Concorde Agreement, the system of the prize fund, which is benefiting the teams only, and in the other hand the FIA has financial regulations and the sporting regulations which makes it mandatory for the PU manufacturer to sell, at a capped price, power units to teams who would like to have it.”
As it stands, F1 is amid a development freeze, effective since 2021 on the current power units, but development is well underway on the new power units for 2026, which is cost-controlled with a $130 million budget cap.
However, with the cost of purchasing a power unit from another manufacturer at approximately $20 million and with Alpine remaining down on its rival OEMs by “15 kilowatts,” Famin rued its cost-effective to change the way the team goes F1 racing.
“When you see the [research and development] costs in developing a PU compared to buying a PU, there is a huge difference,” he said.
“That huge difference is not compensated by any prize fund because all the prize fund goes to the team. Then we are not talking about performance, we are talking about a huge difference in money.”
“There is no secret in the difference because we know, it’s official and it’s public.
“The cost cap, the amount of money which is allowed to PU manufacturers and the PU supply price and the price that the PU manufacturer has to sell the PU, it’s also public.
“It’s something like €120 million in one hand, 17 in the other hand.”
The money saved on its F1 operation will be harnessed by developing the Alpine road car brand, with Famin telling the media during the Friday press conference at the Belgian GP that “the Alpine brand is developing, has a huge, huge project of development, with seven new models in the coming years with high-end technology.
“The project which has been presented at the beginning of the week to the staff representative in Viry-Châtillon is to reallocate the resources from one side to another, one side being the development of the Formula 1 power unit, which is being made in Viry, to dedicate those resources and skills to developing new technologies for the brand, for the new product of the brand.
“And then, one of the consequences of this project, if it’s accepted, would be then for Alpine F1 team to buy a power unit instead of developing its own power unit.”
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