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Alpine chief Flavio Briatore says confidence-boosting early signs with new Formula 1 engine supplier Mercedes are exactly why he demanded the squad make the switch.
The French manufacturer’s parent company Renault made a controversial call to shut down its long-standing works F1 engine project for the new rules era and instead become a customer Mercedes squad for 2026.
The move drew heavy criticism from Renault engine staff at the time, who claimed it was a betrayal.
However, ahead of a 2026 season where Mercedes is expected to have the benchmark power unit, the change could help deliver a good step forward on track for Alpine after it finished bottom of the standings last year.
The first evidence of Alpine facing a new situation was a pretty much trouble-free shakedown for its new A526 at Silverstone earlier this week – which included something Briatore had not experienced before.
At the hands of Pierre Gasly, the new car completed 140km despite a wash out, with the team only failing to hit the 200km limit for a filming day because of poor light.
Briatore said that the smooth running of the car and power unit was something unusual for him – and the silence he saw in the garage was a positive.
“There was aquaplaning, so it made no sense to risk the car,” said Briatore at Alpine’s season launch in Barcelona on Friday.
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“It was easy to do the 140km, and the first time in my long experience in F1, the car went out, came back, went out and never came back.
“Normally they have the oil pressure [sensor] or temperature [problem] and talk over the radio, but everybody was quiet.
“This was good news that nobody was talking. When the people are not talking, we're doing well.”
Mercedes only choice
For Briatore, who was brought in as executive advisor to then Renault CEO Luca de Meo in 2024, the move to Mercedes was something he felt was essential if he was to deliver on his mission to get Alpine towards the front of the grid.
And he has revealed that during his early discussions with de Meo about joining Alpine, he laid down that he would only come on board if the change of engine manufacturer happened.
“With Luca de Meo, when we were talking about joining the team; [the] only one condition for me to join the team was to have a Mercedes engine,” Briatore said. “It was not Plan B. There was only one plan.
“I want a Mercedes engine completely - it was the only way to come back.
“In this moment, you need to be with the best people, and the people of Mercedes, since we started working together…it’s a super, super relationship. This is what we're looking for.”
Asked if there had been any consideration for any other manufacturer partnership, Briatore said: “No. I want to have the discussions always with the best. With the second best, I'm not interested.”
Reliability advantage
As well as Alpine getting 140km of running done with its new engine, the Mercedes works squad completed the maximum 200km during its own shakedown at Silverstone this week.
Such an early level of reliability from a power unit that many expect to be the benchmark in terms of performance will be an extra bonus for its customer teams in helping them rack up the early mileage needed to understand the 2026 cars.
Alpine executive technical director David Sanchez said that hitting the 200km limit in its own shakedown would have been easy were it not for the weather, which brings some confidence for getting through a good programme at Barcelona.
“Out of the box, being able to clock laps and not stopping, is a good confidence boost that you can at least turn up at Barcelona and get on with the work,” he said.
“We wanted to do the 200km. When we started the day on Wednesday we went straight away on a five or six-lap run, and the car ran well. Then we stopped, waited for the weather to move, but it never really went away.
“So when it came mid-afternoon we thought 'right, what do we do? We've got to go out'. So we sent Pierre out, just kept him on track, and he just kept lapping and lapping.
“We just stopped because he told us 'it's getting dark now', and he struggled to see.
“I think getting to 200km would've been pretty easy. So, it just gives a bit of confidence you can go into Barcelona and out of the box start to clock a few laps.”
Alpine says it intends to join the Barcelona shakedown on Monday, with its run plan after that likely dictated by the weather - amid a risk of mid-week showers.
Beyond the technical aspects of the power unit, Sanchez also thinks the relationship with Mercedes could not be going better either.
“We're working in the most open-minded manner,” he said. “We've got very good interactions.
"The integration of that power unit was pretty good, and now we'll work our way through fixing all the little gremlins and focusing on reliability and integration.”
Bad job versus good job
Briatore said at the Alpine launch that if the team did a bad job this season it would be its own fault – because it has the budget, manpower and technology needed to deliver.
Asked by The Race to clarify what would classify as a good or bad job, he said: “Bad job: a good example was last year.
“A good job is to be fighting every race to be in the points; to be in the first six, seven, every race. And then maybe some races when something goes wrong [for others], maybe a little bit better.
“At least we have a solid base. You don't build up a house in the sand. We need to start at one point. That's what we have.”
