Alpine's French-based Formula One employees spoke out on Tuesday against the Renault-owned carmaker's decision to cease engine production at the Viry-Chatillon facility at the end of next season.

Renault will end its Formula 1 engine programme after the 2025 season, the French car company has announced. The decision means Renault's Alpine team will have to buy engines from another manufacturer, which is expected to be Mercedes, from 2026.

Renault entered F1 in 1977, introducing the turbo engine to motor racing’s flagship sport and winning five drivers’ titles and six constructors’ crowns.

The announcement came on Monday, days after Alpine's aggrieved factory staff made a last appeal to Renault CEO Luca de Meo, urging him to reconsider the plan to transition into a customer team in Formula 1. Ultimately, the Renault board reached its final decision on September 30th.

Struggling Formula 1 team Alpine confirmed it will no longer use its homemade Renault engines in 2026. Alpine said in a statement on Monday that its F1 engine factory at Viry-Chatillon on the outskirts of Paris would become an engineering center called Hypertech Alpine, starting from the end of this year.

Renault has confirmed that its Formula 1 engine activities will cease at the end of the 2025 season. The move has been widely anticipated for a couple of months and has been met with widespread criticism in Renault’s native France, with employees lobbying to reverse the decision.

Alpine announced that the Viry-Chatillon facility outside Paris, which employs more than 300 staff, would become a ‘Hypertech’ centre of engineering with their F1 engine production ending next year