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The Groupe Renault CEO recently made the call to close down the French marque’s power unit program.
His decision was made ahead of the 2026 introduction of regulations that increase the use of hybrid energy.
It will see Alpine, Renault’s factory team, revert to a customer supply of engines (most likely from Mercedes) for 2026 and beyond.
Of the four manufacturers currently building F1 power units, Renault is regarded as the weakest, with suggestions that it has 15 horsepower less than its rivals.
It is also an expensive program, with costs rising well above AUD $160 million annually.
A supply deal would drastically reduce costs while also likely benefiting the squad’s on-track performance through a more competitive unit.
“I run a listed company. And I have to rethink the F1 project, to finally win,” de Meo told L’Equipe.
“So I’m looking for shortcuts to achieve this.
“Now we’ve become invisible. Two more years like this and the project would completely deflate.
“We’ve been on a downward slope for three seasons. We had to shake all that up. With a financial logic in parallel.
“But now, with our P16, P17, we look like jokers,” he added.
“The famous ‘marketing returns’ have vanished.”
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While F1 teams are compensated for competing with prize money paid by Liberty Media, there are no additional incentives in being a factory team over a customer.
For de Meo, that was another disincentive as far as continuing with the engine program was concerned.
“The remuneration structure in F1 does not take into account the investments made by the manufacturer teams,” he reasoned.
“So we spend more than the others, but we do not receive move.
“In the long term, F1 could, who knows, propose a technological simplification.
“Like imagining an engine without hybridisation, without electrification, which makes noise and runs on e-fuel for the green image.
“It would be a common base and each manufacturer would keep 10 percent margin to adapt the engine.
“It will cost much less. It’s just a vision.”
F1 is a long way from that vision, with its next generation of engines set to offer a 50-50 split in terms of power generation between the internal combustion element and the hybrid system.
“This new regulation is a kind of Frankenstein, a compromise of the requirements of each manufacturer,” de Meo derided.
“Development costs have become exponential. It’s going to be quite difficult to manage, even for the drivers.
“This engine looks more like a gas factory.
“And let’s be clear, when you visit, and we did, a unit like HPP, the Mercedes engine factory, there are 900 people working there. There are 340 of us in Viry.
“They have test benches that we don’t have.
“The transition to the hybrid era required powerful investments that were underestimated at the time.
“We operate, structurally, with three cylinders when others have eight.
“When I arrived four years ago, the group wanted to stop F1,” he continued.
“We don’t have the structure to be at the forefront of battery chemistry development, software management, energy recovery…
“It’s not just putting an engine on the bench and saying: ‘Hey boss, I’m doing 415 kW!”
As a result, de Meo made the call to abandon Renault’s engine program in favour of a customer supply for 2026.
Alpine this year sits ninth in the constructors’ championship, ahead only of Sauber, which is yet to get off the mark.
Pierre Gasly will remain with the operation next year as Esteban Ocon joins Haas, his spot will be filled by Australian Jack Doohan.
