As Renault morphs into Alpine, the French F1 team, at the heart of the manufacturer's rebrand, gives a glimpse of its new look with temporary 'winter' livery.

Alpine announced today its plans for long-term growth as Groupe Renault's brand dedicated to innovative, authentic and exclusive sportscars.

The current activities of Alpine cars, Renault Sport Cars and Renault Sport Racing will be united as one entity under the Alpine brand, which will bring together the credibility of an authentic brand, specialized manufacturing, engineering mastery with considerable media exposure from Formula One.

Together, it is intended that they set the foundations to truly create market value around Alpine and take it to a different league.

Renault Sport Racing, with its eponymous F1 team, gathers 1,200 people who develop the "grand complication watches of motorsport" with some of the best aerodynamicists, mechanics and powertrain engineers.

F1 is also a huge marketing platform with half a billion fans worldwide, thus representing a unique opportunity to enhance Alpine's branding globally.

Alpine will also leverage the scale and capabilities of Groupe Renault and the RNM Alliance including technology with the Alliance EV-native platform, a global manufacturing footprint, a powerful purchasing arm ensuring optimum cost competitiveness, a global distribution network and RCI Bank & Services. The clear objective is to be profitable in 2025 including investment in motorsport.

As part of the Alpine Business Unit development, Groupe Renault and Lotus Group have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to study a number of areas of cooperation, including the joint development of an EV sportscar. The Alpine and Lotus teams will conduct a comprehensive feasibility study for the joint engineering, design and development of an EV sportscar by leveraging the resources, expertise and facilities of the respective entities in both France and the UK.

Alpine will be at the forefront of Groupe Renault's innovation be it technology, distribution, customer experience or any other area that delivers value for the brand and its customers. As such, Alpine's next product generation will leverage Groupe Renault's latest innovations and will benefit from F1's technology and expertise: efficient energy management, safety systems and connectivity solutions derived from F1's high-performance in data analysis and processing that will bring a significant competitive advantage to the Alpine products.

"The new Alpine entity takes three brands with separate assets and areas of excellence to turn them into an empowered, fully-fledged business," said Laurent Rossi, CEO Alpine. "The craftsmanship from our plant in Dieppe, the engineering mastery from our Formula One and Renault Sport teams will shine through our tech-infused, 100% electric line-up, taking the beautiful Alpine name to the future. We'll be on the tracks and on the roads, authentic and high-tech, disruptive & passionate".

Alpine and Renault have a long racing history with successes in different categories, be it in Formula 1, rally or Endurance. Competition will remain at the core of Alpine's ambitious plans, with Formula 1 being central to the brand's motorsports strategy.

From 2021 the Alpine F1 team will be racing against some of the most prestigious names in the automotive industry and will enter the very exclusive club of full-fledged factory teams.

"Giving a powerful and specific identity to Formula 1, but also to the entire Alpine motorsport programme, is an evidence and an opportunity," added Antony Villain, Alpine Design Director. "With motorsport at the heart of our process, the graphic identity is key.

"The livery presented today is the first evocation of the Alpine F1 team's new identity. Some of the structural graphic elements will remain on the racing livery while others will change.

"The 'oversized' Alpine emblem in a tricolour graphics system is the first clear-cut symbol of the brand's identity in motorsport. The blue, white and red refer to the colours of the French and British flags, which is very important to us. Numerous variations on all the motorsport assets are still to come."

The team's 2021 car, the A521, will be revealed next month at an event which will be attended by drivers, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.