Alpine to end WEC Hypercar project after 2026

Alpine will withdraw from the World Endurance Championship Hypercar class at the end of the 2026 campaign after just five seasons in the category.

The French marque joined for the first year of Hypercar racing in 2021 and has contested every season since, bar 2023, but with minimal success winning just three races.

It also hasn’t been very profitable as a brand during that period, with 2026 being the year it aimed to break even. This has been demonstrated through parent company Renault cutting down many of its motorsport projects.

In Formula 1, for example, it closed its power unit project to become a Mercedes customer for this year, while Wednesday saw Dacia rule out its return to Dakar next year despite winning the recent edition.

So, the potential of Alpine leaving Hypercar has been known for a while now and last week one of its spokespeople refused to rule out such a possibility.

“We have had to take hard decisions to protect the long-term ambitions of Alpine,” Philippe Krief, Alpine CEO, said. “On one side, the automotive industry – and particularly the EV market – are growing slower than expected. On the other side, to succeed for the long-term we must continue our ongoing investment into the Alpine product portfolio and Alpine brand. The result is we must take decisive actions to create a brand with a sustainable future.

“As one team, everyone at Alpine must focus all our efforts on these challenges. In regard to motorsport, while we regret not being able to continue in the WEC after this season, focusing on Formula 1 offers us a unique platform from which we can grow brand awareness in line with our ambitions for product and market growth.

“A winning spirit is part of the DNA of Alpine, across all parts of the business. Therefore, I am confident we will continue to fight until the very last second of the very last race that we are engaged in through 2026.”

This now puts a further cloud over the future of Renault’s Viry-Chatillon base, which had already been in doubt ever since the decision to no longer produce F1 engines.

When that happened, the factory was rebranded as ‘Hypertech Alpine’ but with the Hypercar project now set to shut and the scale of other projects not being very high, from a business standpoint holding 300-350 staff is not justified.

“We have been working hard in defining the new structure and organisation of Alpine Tech,” Axel Plasse, VP Alpine Tech, added.

“We have incredible talents at the Viry-Chatillon site, and we have worked carefully to ensure that the new set-up will allow us to fully focus on the innovative, cutting-edge expertise of our workforce and offer services for new projects and businesses. A busy year has already started with this new focus in mind, alongside running this final WEC season.”

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