Renault CEO Wants Alpine F1 Team To Win Races In 2022

Renault is making a big splash with the rebranded Alpine F1 team in 2021. It has hired the services of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. It has a new racing director in Davide Brivio - and generally, the feeling is that the team is on an upwards curve after scoring three podiums last year. Now, Renault CEO Luca De Meo has outlined a vision where he wants the team to consistently be on the podium and even win one or two races by 2022 when F1 goes through a huge regulation change and the budget cap will be active in full force. 

Luca De Meo is in charge of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance 

De Meo told Frankfurter Allgemeine that the Alpine brand had to be "seen as often as possible on television and in the newspapers from 2022 at the latest, that regularly makes it onto the podium and wins one or two races."

"The real challenge will come for us after 2022 with the change of the regulation. Formula 1 for Renault is the history of the Alpine. It is at the centre of our business. We have been participating in the great circus for 43 years. The series cars are produced in the Dieppe factory, the example of the best French industrial manufacture, the racing one between Viry, France and Enstone, England," he said. 

The two-time world champion rejoins F1 after a hiatus of 2 years with the team he won his two titles with
Photo Credit: AFP

De Neo also outlined why it was important for the Alpine brand to be successful from a marketing perspective. 

"Alpine for us means sport, competition, the application of Renault's technological excellence. On the road, we want to make it a brand that is only zero-emissions but always sporty. I like to look for the soul of a brand in the roots of its history to project it into the future. And Alpine has a lot of history and a future too," he said.