Flavio Briatore: Mercedes engine the only condition for me to join Alpine in F1 <\/a><\/p>\nThe decision made by now-former Renault CEO Luca de Meo was bitter for the hundreds of workers at the Viry-Chatillon factory, who unsuccessfully protested it.<\/p>\n
However, they found solace in plans to rebrand the site as \u2018Hypertech Alpine\u2019, with avenues such as designing Alpine\u2019s next supercar, advancing battery and electric technology, and supporting WEC, Formula E and rally-raid racing programmes \u2013 while keeping an eye on F1.<\/p>\n
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Vilain has now revealed Renault, under new CEO Francois Provost, is scrapping these plans. An internal announcement is expected on 12 February.<\/p>\n
The Viry-Chatillon mayor, who has been in office since 2014 but is not running in next month\u2019s mayoral election, published a press release that was given the following headline: \u201cLies and betrayal by the Renault group regarding the Alpine site in Viry-Chatillon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aerial view of the Renault factory at Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/162709c827d591c3edacdce7f8619a2d.jpeg\"\/)
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Aerial view of the Renault factory at Viry-Ch\u00e2tillon<\/p>\n
In a video on social media, Vilain explained: \u201cI just found out from those directors themselves that those commitments won\u2019t be fulfilled after all.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI am as shocked as I am upset with those promises being reneged on, which also shows total disrespect towards the employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am therefore urging the Renault group and its shareholder, the [French] state [which owns 15% of Renault], to overturn their decision, and I reserve the right to lead \u2013 alongside the Alpine employees and any elected officials willing to join me \u2013 all possible actions to protest what I view as a real betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alpine\u2019s WEC programme has been rumoured to be scrapped beyond the 2026 season, which the brand has neither confirmed nor denied.<\/p>\n
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Whether the Viry-Chatillon factory may be shut down altogether also remains to be seen. This might put a definitive end to Renault\u2019s glorious legacy of 169 grand prix wins and 23 F1 world titles as an engine manufacturer.<\/p>\n
To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viry-Chatillon mayor Jean-Marie Vilain has condemned Renault for allegedly breaking its promises regarding the future of its former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,1710,576,577,189533,3829,82,189532],"class_list":["post-464072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-flavio-briatore","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-jean-marie-vilain","tag-renault","tag-sports","tag-viry-chatillon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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