Alpine faces threat of not having Renault power units at some races in 2024: Reports

F1 journalist Joe Saward claimed that Alpine F1 may not have Renault engines in the back of their cars for some races in the 2024 season. The French manufacturer has been actively looking for an engine provider in the sport for them to become a customer heading into the new engine regulations.

The Enstone-based outfit have been heavily linked with Mercedes as their new engine provider from as early as 2025 as they look to stop their own power unit outfit at Viry.

In his blog, "Green Notebook", Saward talked about Renault Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore being bullish around the potential new engine deal with Mercedes to land Carlos Sainz for the 2025 season. However, he reported that Alpine might have a much more urgent issue in their engine department and said:

"The other slight problem is that no one has told the Renault engine department in Viry-Chatillon about what is happening and they are not happy reading in the media that their project is being stopped. There are very real fears in the team that this will lead to a strike and that Alpine could face a situation of not having engines at some races this year."

"The Renault management has not handled this well and the unions will have no qualms about giving them a public spanking to their sins… It will take some fast talking to solve this problem," he added.

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Alpine F1 driver previews the Belgian GP this weekend.

Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly stated that he and the team were targeting a better weekend at Spa as compared to their struggles at the Hungarian GP last weekend.

As per "PitPass", the Frenchman said:

"We are aiming for a much better weekend in Spa to see us into the summer shutdown. We went well last year, finishing third in the Sprint, which was an amazing result," Gasly remarked.

"It's a standard weekend format this time around and after the tough previous events, we are incredibly determined to perform the best we can. I love racing this track, it's one of my favorites, but the feelings I have here are always going to be contrasting," he added.

The 28-year-old also emphasized that after a difficult first half of the 2024 F1 season for everyone in the team, including the factory, they are all looking to improve their performances and are hopeful of an upturn in form going forward.

Alpine looked to have lost their momentum in the last two races as Gasly had a DNF in both Silverstone and Budapest. The Enstone-based team have also slipped back to P8 after momentarily going ahead of Haas in P7. They have only scored nine points in 13 races and three Sprints thus far and remain one of the slowest in terms of performance.