On Tuesday, Renault officially confirmed its intention to discontinue the development of the 2026 Power Unit, effectively dismantling the F1 engine department after the end of 2025, the last with current units before the big revolution. The transalpine brand had already illustrated its plans a few months ago but had set September 30th as the date to evaluate how to move, also to find a meeting point with all the staff of the Viry-Chatillon headquarters.
Although Renault’s top management spoke with employees a few weeks ago, the plans have not changed and Renault has decided to proceed with stopping the PU 2026 project. A choice which, obviously, was not welcomed positively by Viry’s engineers -Chatillon.
The plant will in fact be reconverted and used for the study and development of other technologies, useful not only for the motorsport department, such as the Powertrain for the Hypercar and for Formula E, to which will be added the work with Dacia for the Dakar, but also for the automotive world.
Aerial view of the Renault factory in Viry-Châtillon
Photo at: Renault
Little information was provided in Renault’s statement on the path that will lead to the cessation of F1 activities and the CSE, the Viry employees’ association, expressed its concerns about de Meo’s decision, arguing that “this counter-current decision makes lose its sporting history to Alpine”.
“All staff representatives, representing the voice of the employees and the majority of stakeholders, regret and deplore the decision to halt the 2026 F1 engine project,” reads the CSE statement.
“This choice is supported by the group, which wants to reduce the financial risk surrounding F1, even if no serious study has been conducted to evaluate the impact on future sales and the prestige of the brand.”
Alpine A523, technical detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
“Partnership solutions were discarded by the group, even though they would have made it possible to achieve various objectives: maintaining the activity in F1, reducing development and management costs, maintaining all the skills and the possibility of bringing into the 2026 season an already extensively developed and promising RE26 engine”, is added in the press release. In fact, a few weeks ago, Viry staff had provided the first details on the development of the 2026 Power Unit, claiming that the results of the first tests were encouraging.
The CSE then also raised another critical point, namely how the staff who will no longer work on the F1 project will be managed. Although Renault has already confirmed that there will be no layoffs, the CSE had already expressed its fears on the matter a few weeks ago. According to the CSE, in fact, we will go from 500 to 334 employees from January 1st and there will also be the termination of the contracts of many suppliers, which, clearly, will also mean interrupting certain relationships established over time.
Furthermore, there is also another theme: although Renault’s decisions suggest a future sale (denied several times), the CSE underlined that in the past the French brand has already backtracked on Formula 1 several times , so it would be useful to maintain an element of continuity.
Alpine protesters from Viry-Chatillon
Photo in: Anaël Bernier – Horizons Multiples
“The history of the Viry site demonstrates that conflicting decisions have often been made and demonstrates the importance of retaining highly skilled skills for the future, in order to leave the door open to a return to F1 when the regulations and financial environment of the shareholder will make it more interesting.”
In summary, the CSE concludes that “the lack of maturity of the projects carried out and the loss of confidence in management represent a serious risk of abandonment of critical skills by the Viry site”.
“Despite the turbulence of the last two months, the Viry team has continued to develop the 2026 Power Unit of which Alpine is depriving itself. This counter-current decision makes Alpine lose its sporting history. For all these reasons, the staff representatives of the CSE have unanimously expressed a negative opinion on the transformation project. We ask the public authorities to defend the sustainability of employment on the Viry-Chatillon site”.
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