Wolff would welcome Alpine as Mercedes customer team

F1 Grand Prix, GP Great Britain, Silverstone Circuit

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said that he would welcome Alpine as a Mercedes customer team, claiming that Mercedes' Brixworth-based outfit only benefits from the additional data.

It has emerged recently that French manufacturer Renault that runs the Alpine outfit is evaluating to potentially abandon work on its 2026 power unit and instead shift Alpine to become a customer team.

Alpine has gone through key changes recently, with former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore having signed as Executive Advisor. The Italian was issued a lifetime ban from taking part in F1 for overseeing the Crashgate scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, but that was later overturned.

Alpine was bought by Renault in 1973, and the French manufacturer announced at the end of 2020 that its F1 entry will run under the Alpine banner from 2021 onwards. Renault has remained present in F1 as an engine marque, but it has only supplied Alpine with its power units.

With F1 set to introduce a heavily-revised engine formula from 2026, the sport's engine manufacturers - Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda, Renault and Red Bull Powertrains - have been busy with designing of the new units. However, it is believed that Renault might abandon its F1 power unit project, and Alpine could sign a customer engine deal.

Initially, it was believed that Renault is interested to sign a contract with Ferrari to supply its F1 entry, but Mercedes has emerged as other potential engine manufacturer for the Enstone-based outfit.

Speaking of a possible new customer team, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: "You know, I think that’s a complicated situation because we like the thought of, you know, replacing Aston Martin with another team because of the sheer learning you're doing.

"I think we're set up as an organisation that the more power units, the better it is in terms of accelerating some of the developments or the reliability.

"So this is where it is. I think it didn't go beyond the point of exchanging opinions or having like, you know, exploratory discussions. I think Alpine would take a decision, do they want to continue with their Formula 1 engine programme or not?

"And only when they have taken that strategic decision, we would dive into our agreements. But we're open-minded, and that's what we have told them."

Commenting on the possible cooperation between Mercedes and Alpine, McLaren team boss Zak Brown noted: “From our standpoint, what's good for HPP is good for McLaren as far as we're concerned.

“They've been an awesome partner to work with. So if it adds value to their power unit proposition, then we're all for it. And as far as decision timeframe, I think the sooner you can make a decision on any decision that you make is just better time for preparations.

“I would imagine they'll probably want to make a decision before the summer break to give them as much lead time to learn about the power unit and ways of working.

With Williams also being a Mercedes customer team, the Grove-based outfit's team boss James Vowles would also welcome a new team which would provide the Brixworth-based factory with further data.

"I think Zak and Toto said it eloquently. The more power you have in circulation, the more learning you have. There's no doubt about that in the current season.

"But I think it's also fair to say I'm not sure where McLaren and Mercedes are. But from our perspective, we have been working alongside HPP in order to get the concept right for ‘26 already for many, many months. And so whatever you do, you're going to be six to 12 months behind the three other teams.

"That's quite penalising in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't mean it's unachievable, but there's going to be areas where you're going to be compromising on. There's a tremendous amount of work getting ‘26 right. And the smallest decision on layout can actually have quite a large impact," concluded Vowles.