BWT Alpine Formula One Team

The Enstone story begins with Toleman, a plucky British team that gave Ayrton Senna his F1 debut in 1984. Italian fashion magnate Luciano Benetton purchased the team in 1985, and Benetton Formula quickly evolved from a midfield runner into a serious championship contender. The hiring of technical director Ross Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne in the early 1990s created a formidable engineering partnership, but it was the arrival of a young German driver named Michael Schumacher from Jordan in 1991 that transformed Benetton into a winning force.

Schumacher's talent was breathtaking and immediately apparent. He won his first race at Spa in 1992 and by 1994, driving the Benetton B194, he was engaged in a titanic championship battle with Ayrton Senna — a rivalry tragically cut short by Senna's death at Imola in May 1994. Schumacher won the 1994 title in hugely controversial circumstances, including a deliberate collision with Damon Hill at the Adelaide finale and suspicions about the legality of Benetton's traction control and refueling systems. The 1995 season was more emphatic: Schumacher won nine races and cruised to a second consecutive title, establishing himself as the dominant force in the sport.

Schumacher's departure for Ferrari in 1996 left a void that Benetton never truly filled. Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi provided experience, while Alexander Wurz and Giancarlo Fisichella showed flashes of promise, but the team gradually declined from championship contender to midfield resident. By the early 2000s, Benetton was struggling, and the fashion family's interest in Formula 1 had waned. The stage was set for a takeover that would transform the Enstone operation once again.

Renault purchased the Benetton team at the end of 2001 and rebranded it as Renault F1 Team for 2002, transforming the Enstone operation into a fully-fledged French manufacturer works team. The investment was enormous, and the results were spectacular. Under the technical leadership of Pat Symonds and Bob Bell, and with the brilliant Fernando Alonso promoted to the race seat in 2003, Renault built a challenger capable of toppling the mighty Ferrari-Schumacher combination.

Alonso's 2005 world championship — won at the age of 24, making him the youngest champion in F1 history at the time — was a triumph of strategy, consistency, and raw speed over Schumacher's Ferrari. The 2006 title defense was even more dramatic, with Alonso and Schumacher trading blows throughout the season before the Spaniard prevailed in a classic battle of wills. Alonso's back-to-back championships represented a genuine changing of the guard in Formula 1, and they remain the high-water mark for French motorsport in the world championship.

But the post-Alonso era brought scandal and shame. The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was the scene of "Crashgate" — one of the most egregious incidents of sporting fraud ever uncovered. Nelson Piquet Jr., driving for Renault, was ordered by team principal Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds to deliberately crash his car in order to trigger a safety car that would benefit teammate Alonso. The scheme worked, and Alonso won the race, but when Piquet was sacked in 2009, he revealed the conspiracy. Briatore received a lifetime ban (later overturned on appeal), Symonds was suspended for five years, and Renault's reputation was severely damaged. The manufacturer began scaling back its F1 involvement, eventually selling a majority stake and rebranding the team for 2011.

The period from 2011 to 2015 was one of the most bewildering in the Enstone team's history. Renault sold its majority stake to Genii Capital, a Luxembourg-based investment firm, and the team was rebranded as Lotus Renault GP for 2011, and subsequently Lotus F1 Team from 2012 onward. The naming rights were acquired through a commercial deal with Group Lotus, though confusingly, there was simultaneously another team on the grid — originally Team Lotus, then Caterham — also claiming the Lotus heritage. The legal and brand disputes added a farcical layer to what was already a confusing situation.

On track, however, the team produced some genuinely exciting racing. Kimi Raikkonen, lured back from a two-year rally sabbatical, drove superbly for the team in 2012 and 2013, winning the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2013 Australian Grand Prix while consistently running at the front. Romain Grosjean, initially crash-prone, developed into a rapid and reliable performer. The E20 and E21 were competitive machines that regularly challenged the established frontrunners.

But the financial reality was dire. Without a major manufacturer's backing, Genii Capital struggled to fund the team's operations adequately. Pay delays to suppliers, staff uncertainty, and an inability to invest in the kind of infrastructure upgrades necessary to stay competitive gradually eroded performance. By 2015, the team was in serious financial distress, and it was clear that a buyer was needed to secure the Enstone operation's future. Once again, Renault was listening.

Renault repurchased the team at the end of 2015, returning the Enstone operation to full manufacturer status for the first time since the Crashgate fallout. The ambition was clear: rebuild the team from the ground up and challenge for championships within five years. Cyril Abiteboul was installed as team principal, and significant investment flowed into the Enstone facility and the Viry-Chatillon engine plant in France, where Renault's power units were developed.

The initial seasons were about rebuilding. The 2016 and 2017 cars were midfield runners at best, but the recruitment of talent — including Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull in a blockbuster 2019 signing — signaled serious intent. Nico Hulkenberg provided consistent points finishes, and the team gradually climbed from ninth in the constructors' standings in 2016 to fourth by 2020. Ricciardo's podium finish at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring was the team's first rostrum since the Lotus days, and Esteban Ocon's shock maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix (technically the first race under the Alpine banner, but the culmination of the Renault rebuild) showed that the team could compete with the very best on its day.

Yet the five-year championship challenge never materialized. Renault's power unit remained a step behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and Honda, and the Enstone chassis, while improved, could not compensate for the deficit. As 2020 drew to a close, Renault's leadership decided that a rebrand was needed to inject fresh energy into the project — and the Alpine name was chosen to carry the flag into a new era.