Prost laments Renault’s ‘sad’ F1 exit: ‘It’ll be difficult to come back’

“So I always follow, I always work for them – even today I still do things with them.

“It’s a shame. I understand the decision in terms of the financial aspect, especially when you’re running a team based in France. The cost is more than in countries like in England, for example.

“Obviously I’m very sad, because it’s a long history, it looks like they disappear like this, nobody talks about that.

“But if I’m here today, it’s because of them. Because of the history of what they have done in motor sport, in F1 – we are part of the history.”

Renault will maintain a presence in F1 through its Alpine team, but that’s essentially a British team (based in Enstone), which is funded by a French car manufacturer.

It was the Viry-Châtillon engine base in France that was the beating heart of its motor sport operations, and that’s now been redirected to help with supporting the power units going into the Alpine WEC Hypercar.

The brand has been renowned for bringing engine technology innovation into F1 being involved almost continuously for over four decades. It introduced the turbo into grand prix racing with its first works effort, driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille, in 1977, powered Prost to his final F1 title with Williams in 1993 and crucially collaborated with Red Bull for its massively successful blown diffuser cars, starting with the V8 which went into Sebastian Vettel’s championship-winning 2010 RB6.

However, Prost believes that once Renault falls off the F1 engine treadmill, particularly with the new 2026 engines – featuring 50% electric, 50% internal combustion – a successful return in the future will be unlikely.

“It’s going to be very difficult for them to come back,” he said. “Maybe in a long time, but it’s too difficult – maybe in another way.

Despite his laments now, ‘The Professor’ has had a love-hate relationship with Renault through the years.

When driving for its team in 1983, the combination looked set for the championship until Brabham rallied late on. Prost took the rap, and was fired.

However, there was a triumphant reunion a decade on, when a Renault V10 – then the engine to have in F1 – helped Prost clinch his final title with Williams in 1993.

He then helped to form Renault’s e.dams Formula E team, which his son Nicholas won races for.

Later he became an advisor to the company after it returned to F1 in 2016, but left in acrimonious circumstances.

“I have refused the offer made to me in Abu Dhabi for the 2022 season because of a personal relationship and I was right!” Prost said on social media at the time, also accusing it of having “no respect”.

That fraught relationship was thought to be with then-Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi.

“Rossi’s desire is to be alone, not to be polluted by anyone,” said Prost. “He told me he no longer needed advice. There is a real desire to put a lot of people on the sidelines.”