Alpine will have to renegotiate its engine with Andretti, Bruno Famin affirms

Andretti got the green light from FIA, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, to move on to the next step to potentially enter Formula 1 in 2025. Negotiations will therefore start with F1 to see if there is a financial interest to be drawn from the arrival of an 11th team.

Alpine, in this approach, had last year proposed its engine to Andretti to enter F1 with an already present engine manufacturer. However, the agreement ended in March of this year and since then, Alpine is no longer linked to Andretti.

Bruno Famin, interviewed by Canal+ explained: « We are in discussion and we had discussions with Andretti. We had a contract with them, a supply pre-contract but which became null and void on March 31 of this year. It was conditional on this new entry and they didn’t get it. »

If the agreement is lapsed, it can nevertheless be renegotiated affirms the Alpine director: « Today, we are not associated with Andretti in any way. Now, we could very well discuss with them if they have this famous entrance. »

A GM Cadillac Andretti Alpine partnership?

Andretti argued the interest of the American group General Motors / GM to support his candidacy in Formula 1 this winter, mentioning a technical partnership between Cadillac, which is part of the GM group, with Andretti. If that was the case, it would mean that Andretti would have to find a possibly Cadillac-badged engine, with an Andretti-Cadillac-Alpine being probably unlikely in the interest of the respective manufacturers on paper.

Honda notably sold its engine to Red Bull this year, rebranded as RBPT (Red Bull Powertrains) and Renault, then at the end of its contract with Red Bull, had authorized the rebranding of its Tag Heuer engine.

As for the interest in bringing in an 11th team, Bruno Famin leaves it to the Formula One Management.

« We fully trust the FOM to assess the interest of the entry of an 11th team and we will follow. »