Accelerated promotion in Formula 1, return to the WEC endurance world championship and full conversion of the range to all-electric. It is an understatement to say that Alpine, owned by Renault, is undergoing a shock treatment. Released in 2018 from a long slumber of twenty-three years, the automobile company had until then been satisfied with the esteem of the new generation of the A110 (8,969 units produced in three years).
With the arrival of Luca De Meo at the head of Renault, in July 2020, the small French brand for aesthetes will have to change dimension to become the “premium sport” division of the French group. An objective which requires it to make a place of choice among the protagonists of motorsport.
By deciding to bring together under the Alpine banner all the competition commitments assumed until then by Renault Sport – which will only be the claw of the upscale versions of the diamond models – the manufacturer is choosing rationality. It is now on the Alpine single-seaters, recognizable by their blue dress, that all the prestige consubstantial with a commitment to Formula 1 will be reflected. A first for the brand, founded in 1955 in Dieppe (Seine-Maritime), where its factory, the cradle of 385. employees hope to secure their future.
“In F1, Renault ended up being part of the scene and there was only a tenuous link between its presence in competition and its range”, analysis Laurent Rossi, the new CEO of Alpine. Since the Billancourt firm has decided to sacrifice the RS (“Renault Sport”) versions of its Clio and Megane, weighed down by European standards and the ecological penalty, the commercial impact of this commitment had become even more uncertain. Not to mention that the French generalist manufacturer denoted a bit in the middle of a plateau that had become the prerogative of high-end brands (Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren, etc.).
Being one of the elite manufacturers and, above all, benefiting from a leading media exposure, should allow Alpine – which had been at the origin of Renault’s adventure in F1 in the mid-1970s – to remedy its main handicap: a lack of notoriety, in particular outside European borders.
“To establish yourself as a valid competitor”
In mid-March, during the first preparatory tests for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the entire Alpine team wore a t-shirt on which was explained the correct pronunciation of the new French team. “F1 is twenty-three Grands Prix a year and 500 million viewers around the world. We are not going to stop talking about us when Alpine was only very rarely in the news ”, rejoices Laurent Rossi, who also sees a “Sign of emancipation”.
It will still be necessary to show performance on the F1 circuits. “Our ambition is to establish ourselves as a valid competitor, capable of fighting in each race for the podium”, assures the general manager. Also entered in the premier class (WEC) of the world endurance championship, Alpine will once again become one of the most prominent competitors of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an event it won in 1978 with the Jaussaud-Pironi crew.
This strong comeback on the field of competition accompanies an expansion of the range within which the A110 berlinetta will be the last Alpine powered by an internal combustion engine. The catalog will be enriched with three additional models, exclusively equipped with an electric motor. In 2024, a small sports sedan derived from the future Renault 5 will be introduced as well as an SUV designed on a platform common to Renault and Nissan. This will be followed by a coupe developed with the English manufacturer Lotus.
At the same time, the distribution network, limited to 58 points of sale in Europe, will be increased tenfold. Alpine’s demanding roadmap provides for the brand to become capable of balancing its accounts and self-financing its projects by 2025.
An electrical transplant difficult to accept
The desire to invest in traditional motor racing, with its oh-so-loud revs and gasoline smells, appears somewhat paradoxical. This commitment must ensure the promotion of future models, admittedly with a strong temperament, but based on technologies that turn their backs on thermal engines.
Engine engineer, Laurent Rossi, who describes himself as “A fanatic of anything that makes noise”, shows no mood. “The whole industry will go electric and this reality draws a new frontier: what matters now is no longer engine power but aerodynamic performance and weight reduction., he assures. However, there is no better than F1, where hybrid technology is present, to improve these two dimensions. “
Among the guardians of the Alpine temple, we are trying to find a reason even if the electric transplant is difficult to accept and that an official engagement in the world rally championship would have appeared more in line with the history of the brand. “It is not with a cheerful heart that we are going to say goodbye to the song of the turbo and the V6, but we have no choice. You have to live with the times and seize the opportunity to make Alpine more widely known ”, philosopher Jean-Jacques Mancel, founder of Berlinette Magazine (17,000 copies), the bimonthly bible for fanatics of the brand.