McLaren stirred up the entire F1 grid in 2023. Oscar Piastri collided with two rivals during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and pierced together a 10th-place finish. However, Lando Norris more than made up for that – he led the race from pole to finish. That fetched McLaren Racing its first constructor’s championship since 1998, a glimmer of its partnership with Mercedes – something that Alpine now wants a part of.

After a drab performance over the past nine seasons, Alpha pulled itself by the socks in 2024. That was thanks to a double podium finish by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly at Interlagos, which landed the team a 33-point boost. Now, it wants to take a step further, especially with F1’s new era.

Alpine allows itself no excuses

We all saw the wonders that McLaren did with Mercedes-Benz engines. Their partnership steps back to 1995 and continues to bloom even now. In 2024, the team did a stellar job from China onwards, netting 20+ points consistently. Australian prodigy Oscar Piastri was on fire, as he roped in his first two Grand Prix wins.

One of those came to Azerbaijan, finally pushing the team ahead of Red Bull. There was no turning back from that point onwards, as McLaren clinched its constructor’s title soon enough. This shining example made an impact on Alpine, which now wants to take a bite of McLaren’s success.

After much deliberation, the Enstone outfit abandoned the 2026 power unit at the Viry-Chtillon factor in late September last year. Alpine officially signed up for a partnership with Mercedez, to chime with F1’s entry into a new era of regulations. So Alpine’s technical director David Sanchez admitted that his team will be afforded no more excuses. “Now, whether you’re a customer or works team, the engines have to perform the same. So it’s not anymore a matter of [if] the works team can get more out of the engine.” Since Renault bought out the team in 2015, it has achieved just three podiums, including Esteban Ocon’s memorable victory in the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.

F1’s new regulations require power units to be equally fueled by electric power and an internal combustion engine running on sustainable fuel. Accordingly, Sanchez believes that offers more parity to Mercedes-Benz customer teams. So McLaren may have a solid contender in Alpine. Sanchez said, “Then, in terms of packaging and integration, all the engines [are] now very well packaged. And the way the aero regulations are, there are a few legality boxes which are deliberately big enough such that they won’t favor one PU manufacturer more than another one. So I think now, in terms of what engine you have in the car, you can be a customer team and be very good.”

And Mercedes’s chief firmly believes in uplifting its customer teams.

Dedicated to all-rounder success

The Mercedes team suffered an immense blow at the end of 2024. It lost seven-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari after a decade of stellar racing. However, the outfit remains dedicated to serving its customer teams. Before its 2024 title, McLaren enjoyed world championship success with Mercedes in the late 1990s. McLaren CEO Zak Brown professed the amount of trust he has in Mercedes’ products in 2023. “Mercedes-Benz have been a brilliant and reliable partner of the McLaren Formula 1 team…we have been successful together.”

Now that Alpine has joined the Mercedes fold, the Enstone outfit may look forward to a dazzling future. That is because Toto Wolff, Mercedez F1 team boss, is committed to creating a winning culture as F1 moves to its new regulations. “It has been a cornerstone of our motorsport strategy to work with strong customer teams… McLaren’s strong performances underline the importance of transparent and equal supply to all customer teams in the sport if we wish to achieve the goal of ten teams capable of fighting for podium finishes.”

Evidently, Alpine is on a sure-fire route to success. All the team has to do is gather its resources and use Mercedes’ engines to the fullest, as McLaren did.