Alpine F1 principal Famin to leave at end of August
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FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 22, 2024 Alpine team principal Bruno Famin before practice REUTERS/Mark Peterson/File Photo
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The Renault-owned Alpine Formula One team are set for their fifth boss in four years, with Bruno Famin to leave next month, and are considering buying in engines from 2026 instead of making their own.
The team confirmed at the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday that Frenchman Famin would leave the role by the end of August with a replacement named in due course.
Famin, who will be in charge of all other Renault Group motorsport activities at the Viry-Chatillon factory, took over a year ago as replacement for Otmar Szafnauer.
American Szafnauer took over from Laurent Rossi in February 2022, with the latter appointed in January 2021 after the departure of Cyril Abiteboul.
The turmoil at the Enstone-based team compares to the stability at champions Red Bull, who have been run by Christian Horner since January 2005, and Mercedes who have had Toto Wolff in charge for more than a decade.
Media reports tipped Briton Oliver Oakes, founder of the Hitech GP teams that compete in Formula Two and Three, as a possible replacement for Famin.
Formula One starts an August break after this weekend's race at Spa-Francorchamps with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort next up on Aug. 25.
Alpine, a team that won titles as Benetton and Renault in the 1990s and 2000s, have struggled this season with only nine points from 13 races.
They are eighth overall after finishing sixth in 2023 and fourth in 2022.
Famin said Renault had presented a project to develop sportscar brand Alpine globally.
"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," he added.
"And then we'll have more resources to develop the brand and a different power unit to race for the Formula One team."
Famin said the project had been presented to staff at Viry and governance bodies and talks were ongoing with power unit manufacturers.
"A very important thing in the project which has been presented: every single employee will be offered a job," he added. "There is no redundancy at all.
"The Formula One project remains a key project for the Alpine brand. It's thanks to Formula One that we want to develop the brand awareness globally.
"That remains, but the project is just reallocating the resources to develop the brand better always based on the pillar of motorsport and mainly Formula One to develop the awareness."
The return of former Benetton and Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore as executive adviser to Renault chief executive Luca de Meo was announced last month. REUTERS
