Can Alpine produce a 2026 F1 car worthy of its engine?

Alpine ’s 2026 Formula 1 car launch will be one of the least celebratory of the new era, not because expectations are low, but because the stakes are unusually clear.

The 2026 car will be the first Alpine to be conceived entirely around a customer power unit, and Enstone’s first time running a modern-style customer engine rather than being aligned to a manufacturer’s own works project.

After Renault’s decision to halt its own engine programme in 2025, the team enters the new regulations dependent on Mercedes hardware, which is believed to be the benchmark power unit of the new era.

The question that will frame everything Alpine unveils is whether the team has built a car worthy of what it has been given after a disastrous 2025.

Renault’s withdrawal from power-unit development marked the end of an identity that had defined the team in various forms for decades, including Benetton, Renault, Lotus and, finally, Alpine itself.

While framed publicly as a pragmatic business decision, it also represented an admission: the resources required to win under the new rules were beyond what the programme could realistically justify.

For Alpine, the shift to Mercedes power is not inherently a step backwards, particularly as the German manufacturer appears to be a step ahead of the competition if paddock talk is to be believed.

McLaren won both titles with a Mercedes engine last year, and the competitive ceiling of the new regulations is designed to be flatter than in previous cycles, at least in theory.

But abandoning works status removes a layer of justification, as Alpine can no longer point to engine limitations if or when results disappoint.

From 2026, performance shortfalls will reflect almost entirely on the chassis, the aero concept and the organisation itself.

A season written off

Alpine arrives at 2026 after one of the bleakest seasons in its modern history.

The 2025 campaign was effectively sacrificed early, with development effort redirected towards the new regulations long before the competitive picture stabilised.

The result was a car that spent much of the year at the back of the field, frequently detached even from the midfield battles it once considered its natural territory.

That sacrifice only works if it buys progress once the new season starts.

Alpine has accepted short-term pain in exchange for long-term competitiveness – a logic that Ferrari and Mercedes have also embraced to varying degrees.

But the danger is obvious: If Alpine’s 2026 car does not represent a visible step forward, the narrative shifts from strategic patience to institutional failure.

Also like Ferrari or Mercedes, there will be no appetite for another year of explanations at Alpine.

The engine can’t fix it all

The Mercedes power brings expectation, but not guarantees.

Integrating a new engine is one of the most complex challenges under the 2026 regulations, where energy deployment, cooling efficiency and packaging philosophy are tightly interwoven with aerodynamic performance.

Alpine’s recent record does not inspire automatic confidence.

Correlation issues, concept changes and inconsistent development paths have plagued the team across multiple seasons. A powerful engine cannot compensate for a confused platform.

What Alpine needs to show early on is coherence: a car that looks as though it has been designed around the Mercedes package rather than adapted to it, otherwise the benefits of the engine will evaporate quickly.

Without a Renault engine, Alpine is no longer a traditional works team. But it also lacks the lean independence of teams built around customer models from the outset.

That leaves Alpine in a narrow middle ground, where it needs to prove value through execution.

The 2026 car will be the first real evidence of whether Alpine understands what it now is, and what it is trying to become.

Leadership in flux

Compounding the technical challenge is an organisational one.