Renault has confirmed its Formula 1 team will be known as Alpine from next year.
The team announced on Sunday its official title for the 2021 F1 season will be ‘Alpine F1 Team, equipped with a Renault E-Tech hybrid engine’.The Alpine brand was created in 1955 but ceased production of road cars in 1995. Renault relaunched the brand three years ago with a new two-seater coupe, the A110.
“Alpine is a beautiful brand, powerful and vibrant, that brings a smile to the faces of its followers,” said Renault CEO Luca de Meo. “By introducing Alpine, a symbol of French excellence, to the most prestigious of the world’s automotive disciplines, we are continuing the adventure of manufacturers in a renewed sport.
“We are bringing a dream brand alongside the biggest names, for spectacular car races made and followed by enthusiasts. Alpine will also bring its values to the F1 paddock: elegance, ingenuity and audacity.”
The team released a teaser image indicating it will adopt Alpine’s traditional blue colour scheme.
“This change comes at a key moment in the trajectory of the team and the sport,” said Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul, who was recently put in charge of the Alpine brand.
“Alpine brings a new meaning, new values and colours to the paddock with the spirit of competition from other worlds and French creative agility,” said Abiteboul.
Renault recently confirmed it had signed the new Concorde Agreement, extending its commitment to compete in Formula 1.
“The new regulatory and financial framework will establish the conditions for a fairer motor sport in its redistribution of revenues [and] simpler and progressive in its governance,” said Abiteboul. “The implementation of the ‘budget cap’ will put an end to the expense race and will allow the signatory teams to be measured for their sporting value.
“Alpine has its place in Formula 1 and can challenge for victory.”
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HUHHII (@huhhii)
6th September 2020, 9:51
Gives them a great chance to massively improve the layout, but remembering it’s Renault they’ll probably just blow that chance too.
Pedro Andrade
6th September 2020, 9:54
Don’t you love it when people say a lot without saying anything of substance?
Oople
6th September 2020, 10:33
Me when trying to reach the 5000 word count on my undergrad essay :P
Dex
6th September 2020, 13:01
Why? Doesn’t changing formal name mean that everything will be different (of course for the better)? I ignore official branding, it would feel like being a victim of PR. It was Renault, it’ll remain Renault (same people, same tech, same facilities, same financing structure, same fans, same…). Torro… Ehm Alpha whatever is still Red Bull 2 in my mind, I don’t even care to recall this new name when I think about the team. I think we all know what it means when someone is ashamed of his/her own name.
jlb
6th September 2020, 9:59
Alpine blue, please.
Tony Mansell
6th September 2020, 10:05
Cultural appropriation. Alpine is a great brand but it’s connected with rally cars. It’s all a bit desperate. Renault are just getting back to something like a good team, they have a proud and successful history in F1 and they’re going to graft on the Alpine badge because they can’t shift many Alpine cars. Play things for the gods F1 is, it seems.
HAL
6th September 2020, 12:39
Alpine has an heritage in Rally, but so what ? Do you mean that Huyndai cannot go to F1 one day because they are in Rally today ? Or that Audi should not have been in endurance ? Alpine is today the “sport branding” of Renault, and it’s been so for a long time. Make sense to use that brand in F1, and with the Renault engine at the back, everybody’s going to call the team “Alpine-Renault”, which is perfect for them…
StephenH
6th September 2020, 10:11
A penny for Fernando’s thoughts…
Mashiat (@mashiat)
6th September 2020, 10:18
Not so sure he’d care a lot. It’s just a rebranding, it won’t affect performance. They would be as good (or bad) with the Renault name.
Vincent (@vinnivinni)
6th September 2020, 10:24
Alpine is an anagram for “el pain” … he will suffer ;-)
RocketTankski
6th September 2020, 10:31
suffer by bread! :-)
Neiana (@neiana)
6th September 2020, 16:49
“Looks like the car I won my first championship with.”?
HK (@me4me)
6th September 2020, 10:26
OK. So when they put sister-brand Infiniti on the Red Bull cars Renault weren’t happy. And now that they have their own respectable team…. they put Alpine one it.
I don’t get it. The Renault brand is way more connected to Formula 1. Most people remotely interested in F1 know about the 2005 and 2006 seasons and Renaults succes. Besides, Renault mostly only hurt their reputation between 2014 and 2018 with slow-unreliable engines. From 2019 onwards they fixed that – they are a respectable team now. Why wouldn’t they want the Renault-brand to benefit from that?
Patrick (@paeschli)
6th September 2020, 10:51
My guess is that Renault isn’t really selling sports/performance cars. This is great way to re-launch a new car brand.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
6th September 2020, 11:18
Yes, it’s a great marketing idea but an even better one would be… Renault Alpine tying the manufacturer to the performance division like Mercedes AMG.
Mashiat2 (@mashiat2)
6th September 2020, 13:37
@freelittlebirds Or why not name it Alpine-Renault? Since Renault is still the PU manufacturer. It would be like McLaren-Honda, and has a ring to it. Certinaly better than “Alpine F1 Team, equipped with a Renault E-Tech hybrid engine”, I mean, what even is that name? Maybe Racing Point should change their official name to “BWT Racing Point F1 Team, equipped with a 2019 Mercedes chassis”.
socksolid (@socksolid)
6th September 2020, 16:17
This could be some kind of move to prepare for the new budget cap regs for next season.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
6th September 2020, 10:32
I do enjoy the fact that the official F1 site can never have an exclusive anymore. All it ever does is confirm news from this site. Well done again Keith and Dieter
Jere (@jerejj)
6th September 2020, 12:11
@eurobrun They do have own stuff as well.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
6th September 2020, 11:03
Nice, I dig it. It kind of resembles the Toro Rosso livery, I hope they´ll add some yellow.
Marty
6th September 2020, 11:14
If they were Confident about 2022 they would have Kept the Renault name. So this is to prevent more damage to the Ref name…
Marty
6th September 2020, 11:15
If they were Confident about 2022 they would have Kept the Renault name. So this is to prevent more damage to the Renault name…
Adam (@rocketpanda)
6th September 2020, 12:23
Can’t help but think they’re changing the name and branding because the Renault works team driving around in the lower edges of the top ten is embarrassing for the company. It’ll be a shame to see a yellow car disappear from the grid to be honest. Personally I had wanted a more vibrant blue F1 team to turn up, but I can’t say I’m fond of Alonso or Ocon so… ah well.
Only Facts!
6th September 2020, 12:51
Knives out for supercar brands in F1.
Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine.
Still missing: Lamborghini, Bugatti (are they still there?), Porsche. They’re all VW group, I guess.
With the new budget all you need now is one reliable title sponsor, half a dozen smaller ones and the F1 revenue. And of course you need a team.
I believe that’s what the investment group saw in Williams. If they can get to midfield, selling a turn key F1 operation for profit shouldn’t be hard.
Mashiat2 (@mashiat2)
6th September 2020, 13:42
Personally, I’d love to see BMW back in F1. I thought they did a very good job when they were in F1, both as an engine manufacturing and a works team. Would be interesting to see the two German giants in Mercedes and BMW fighting in F1, although the fact Mercedes will almost certainly trounce them (at least for the first few years) might be one reason they won’t join.
Alex Roy
6th September 2020, 13:48
Alpine, Aston Martin, Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo. The A’s have taken over. From zero to four in a few years!
Robert McKay
6th September 2020, 13:55
Any day now for the Aaron A. Aaronson Formula 1 Team.
James
7th September 2020, 22:11
Don’t give Dorilton Capital ideas 🤫 😂
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th September 2020, 14:08
I guess Renault is too big a name for them to be failing to succeed. A bit like Ford dodging a bullet naming their team Jaguar instead of Ford… Alpine or Jaguar can take the embarrasment, but it’d be harder to swallow as Renault.
That being said, if a team is succesful it makes a lot more sense to put the parent company’s name instead of an very small, niche sport car company