Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes has explained the team’s choice to use the Mercedes gearbox for just one Formula 1 campaign.
2024 was the ground zero for Alpine’s latest F1 revolution with Renault CEO Luca de Meo keen to slash costs and improve performance.
That saw Flavio Briatore hired as Executive Advisor in late June and Oakes was brought on as Team Principal in August.
A rather seismic change was De Meo and Briatore’s decision to scrap the Renault F1 engine project, a half-century-long institution in Viry, France to become a Mercedes power unit customer for 2026 and beyond.
2026 will see Alpine use Mercedes’ gearbox as well as power unit, before reverting to building its own gearbox from 2027.
Speaking to Autosport, Oakes explained that the decision was to free up resources amid the 2026 rule changes: which will see cars become smaller, lighter and introduce active aerodynamics.
“We’re taking that [gearbox] just for one year in 2026,” Oakes said.
“It gives us a bit of headroom to during that regulation change to sort of have one less thing to worry about,” he explained.
“But our own gearbox is in the car now and we’re performing, and it will be the same in 2027 as well going forward.
“It’s just purely balancing resource for that one season in 2026, and everybody in the team, they’ve designed, manufactured and built and raced a great gearbox. And it’s clear to see the current results as well.”
Alpine balancing 2025 and 2026 development
Alpine looks completely different at the start of 2025 than it did a year ago.
There is a new Team Principal, a new Technical Director (David Sanchez) and a whole new way of thinking.
A late-season upgrade and some fortune saw Alpine surge from ninth in the Constructors’ standings to sixth in the final six rounds of the 2024 season.
Briatore set out Alpine’s targets for 2025, ’26 and 27 to Auto Motor und Sport, saying: “Alpine must always be in the top six next year. Maybe a podium every now and then.
“In 2026, we want to be on the podium in 50 per cent of all races,” he added.
“Then you automatically win one or another race. In 2027, we must be able to compete for the title.”
Oakes has acknowledged Alpine must balance its development in 2025, amid the discussion of whether to scrap this year’s car early in favour of getting the jump on the new rules next year.
“That’s the daily topic at the moment, I think because some teams have been quite vocal about sacrificing 2025,” he said.
“How much of that you believe or not, I don’t know.
“Maybe they’re sort of trying to move some pressure off themselves because most teams know already in December where they’re looking for 2025. And you wonder when teams come out with comments like that…
“From my side, we want to have a good ’25. We’re pretty humble that that’s not going to be easy because there’s quite a lot of carryover from this year.
“And we know we’d love to go more to town on development and balancing resource for 2026, but I guess everybody’s going to be judged the next three years; I think people will judge us on he job we did 23-24-25-26-27 as a period of time rather than just in that moment in F1.
“I’m new in the job, but I find it quite interesting reading stuff online that a lot of people don’t take into context, the sort of background and the build-up to things.
“And the situation we were in as a team, it wasn’t just because of the winter.
“Things were signed off way earlier. And I think it’s always important to look at the global view.”
READ MORE – Alpine agrees Mercedes F1 power unit customer deal from 2026
