Alpine back in F1: The return of an invisible old acquaintance

The name Renault F1 Team will no longer be used, this because the factory team has switched to Alpine F1 Team. Under that name, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon will compete in Formula 1 in 2021. With this rebranding of the Renault F1 Team, the car manufacturer is following a new route, which they have previously set in other racing classes. However, Alpine is not completely new. Alpine has traditionally been involved in motorsport and in this article, we will briefly review their involvement in the sport.

First appearance

If we dive deep into history, we come across the name Alpine in combination with Formula 1 in the year 1968. This was the year that the Alpine A350 Grand Prix car was built, but it never came to fruition. The car was certainly finished and even tested at Zandvoort by Mauro Bianchi, but Renault was not satisfied.

Built on the Gordini V8, Alpine showed Renault their ability to make a capable race car. The problem was that the Cosworth engines of that time proved to be stronger and better, so Renault decided not to use the Alpine A350 Grand Prix during the French Grand Prix.

On the one hand, because the engine used was not good enough, on the other hand, because the car would not reflect the "image" of Renault.

Open-wheel racing

Alpine has never really entered Formula 1 afterwards as the actual manufacturer of the same name but has always been involved in motorsport whether or not via Renault. In 1971, for example, the company started building open-wheel racing cars, initially for Formula 3. At the same time, they also built cars for Formula 2 in that year.

The chassis they used from 1972 to 1974 also appeared on the track under the names Alpine A367, but with a Ford-Cosworth or BMW engine. This is because Renault was then unable to build a competitive engine for that racing class. In 1976 they succeeded and that together with the "Elf 2J", which was, in fact, an Alpine chassis, Jean-Pierre Jabouille managed to win the championship.

The following year was also successful through the customer team Martini, where René Arnoux became Formula 2 champion in 1977. They had also built a Formula 1 car, but it was never used under the name Alpine in the royal class since their entry was under "Renault".

Directly and indirectly involved in motorsport

Alpine has always been involved in motorsport in the years since, but in Formula 1 the name has never really been used literally. However, they have been active at Le Mans and the name Alpine was also frequently used in combination with Renault to indicate certain models of cars.

In 1995, Renault abandoned the brand as it was causing problems for consumer car sales in the UK. This is because the Alpine brand name was registered there by the Sunbeam company. Given that the Alpine F1 Team is based in Enstone, UK, that problem no longer seems to be an issue.

As we make the leap to 2021, with the name returning again, we see that it is not entirely without reason. Alpine is today the new name of the Renault car brand's sports division. This to make it sound more exclusive and the best advertising is of course to have an Alpine Formula 1 team.

With that, the return of Alpine in Formula 1 is officially a fact and now they are really visible as a brand name. It is an interesting brand to look at because it has never been so visual, yet they have roots in various branches of motorsport. It is not without reason that the name is often cited as a brand that rightly belongs in Formula 1.

Alpine's brief history specifically concerning motorsport comes to an end here, but the brand has done much, much more in various other areas. Nevertheless, we must not forget that under the new look there is simply a well-known team, and that is Renault. While there have been some shifts around management, in the end, performance on the track will count.

This article was written and originally published by Lennard on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.