Bruno Famin, still overseeing Alpine's motorsport activities, has dismissed speculation that Renault might sell the intellectual property (IP) for its scrapped 2026 engine to GM-Cadillac.
Alpine's latest and expected announcement confirms they will transition to customer Mercedes engines from 2026 onward, using them until "at least 2030."
According to Famin, Renault CEO Luca de Meo decided to halt the engine program due to the high costs of developing power units independently. "Until 2025 inclusive, the engine cap is $95 million, then it will be $135 million from 2026," Famin explained to Auto Hebdo. "That is much too high. We would have to develop at full speed over a 4-5 year cycle, representing about a billion dollars of investment."
Famin noted that Renault realised a major cost advantage by buying competitive engines instead. "The regulations limit leasing engines to $17 million per year. That's a huge difference, especially when we only talk about engines when things are going badly," he added.
He also mentioned efforts to increase the customer engine lease cap beyond $17 million, making it viable to sell to customers, though the outcome was a failure. "There were many of us around the table who wanted this increase, but not all of us, otherwise we would have achieved it. It simply went from $15 to $17 million, which is not enough," he said.
Famin rejected the notion of selling Alpine's engine IP outright to Cadillac or any other competitor. "No, we will not sell our IP because Viry's know-how is its capital. We want to keep our value for our future project. We are not parting with it," he clarified, adding, "We are not going to help competitors to beat us - that makes no sense.
"So no - it is totally out of the question to sell this intellectual property."
Famin also clarified that Alpine, with its customer Mercedes engines from 2026, might then allow another entity, like the Andretti-Cadillac project, to oversee Viry-Chatillon's operations. "That is totally out of the question," he repeated.
