Alpine F1 Team

Alpine F1 Team is the modern face of the Enstone operation that has produced multiple Formula 1 world titles under earlier names. In 2026 it competes with Mercedes power under team principal Steve Nielsen and sits sixth in the standings on 68 points.

A proven Enstone lineage

The team’s roots run back to Toleman in the early 1980s, the outfit that gave Ayrton Senna his Formula 1 debut. Benetton acquired the operation mid-decade and, from the same Oxfordshire base at Enstone, delivered Michael Schumacher’s 1994 and 1995 drivers’ titles and the 1995 constructors’ crown. Renault took over and rebranded the team in 2002; under the Renault name it won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso. The Enstone cars later raced as Lotus, taking Grand Prix wins in 2012 and 2013, before Renault returned as owner in 2016 and finally rebranded the works team to Alpine for 2021.

Enstone has long been twinned with Renault’s historic engine base at Viry-Châtillon in France, a partnership that produced many of the sport’s most successful power units and chassis packages. The Alpine name placed the emphasis on Renault Group’s sports-car marque from 2021.

Alpine era begins

The Alpine badge appeared on the 2021 grid and the team finished fifth in the constructors’ standings with 155 points and one Grand Prix victory. That win came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Esteban Ocon held his nerve in a chaotic race to take the Enstone outfit’s first triumph since the Lotus days; later that season Alonso stood on the podium in Qatar.

In 2022 Alpine improved to fourth in the constructors’ championship with 173 points, winning a close fight for “best of the rest” behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. The team scored consistently, even if a win proved elusive, and ended the season as the leading midfield entrant.

Progress stalls

The rise stalled in 2023. Alpine slipped to sixth with 120 points and no wins, a result that underlined the narrowing margins in the midfield and the team’s struggle to produce regular top-six finishes.

The downward trend continued into 2024, with another sixth-place finish and 65 points. By 2025 the picture had worsened, Alpine falling to tenth in the constructors’ standings with 22 points and no wins. Those bare numbers prompted a rethink. After years as Renault’s works entrant, 2026 brought a clear technical and organisational reset aimed at halting the slide.

2026 reset and Mercedes power

For 2026 Alpine adopted Mercedes power, becoming a customer of the most decorated engine supplier of the hybrid era and ending its run with Renault-built power units. It is not the first time an Enstone car has used Mercedes engines; the Lotus-branded team ran them in 2015. The switch coincided with wider rule changes and a change in leadership, with experienced F1 operator Steve Nielsen installed as team principal. At this stage of the season Alpine sits sixth on 68 points, without a win but back among the midfield’s competitive core.

A team defined by reinvention

The 2021 rebrand quickly brought a victory and a fourth-place championship finish a year later. The following slump, captured starkly by the sequence of P6 (120 points) in 2023, P6 (65 points) in 2024 and P10 (22 points) in 2025, forced Alpine to embrace a different model for 2026. The team’s present position—sixth with 68 points so far—does not reflect a return to its title-winning peaks under Benetton or Renault, but it does suggest Alpine is moving away from the nadir of 2025.