Alpine believes its current situation of having no customer teams won’t hinder its hopes of finding seats in Formula 1 for its junior drivers.
The rebranded Renault team announced its academy for 2021 on Wednesday, with three of its five drivers racing in Formula 2 this year.
Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lundgaard are both returning for another season, while 2020 F3 champion Oscar Piastri graduates to the series with Prema.
However, Alpine’s options appear limited in a bid to promote its juniors drivers to F1 in the near future. With McLaren now switching to Mercedes power for 2021, Alpine has no affiliation with other teams.
Alpine’s academy director Mia Sharizman is unfazed by the team’s lack of connections, confident it can find a solution to place its juniors in F1.
“It is something that we have identified, ways and means to ultimately get the drivers to our seat,” Sharizman said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“Without a power unit supply or without any connections, there can still be a collaboration between other teams. I won’t divulge too much into it.
“But having said that, we focus on what we have, we focus on the two race seats that we have, the academy that we have, and the tools that we have.
“Obviously, going into our team is the priority. But we believe that there is still room for collaboration with other teams, irrespective of the power unit supply.”
Alpine’s current driver line-up of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon is contracted to at least the end of this year, with the former also signed for 2022.
Sharizman acknowledged its young drivers are at different stages of their careers, but says plans are in place to ensure they can make the next step.
“The three of them are three different years, going into the championship: you have Zhou in his third year, Christian in his second year, and obviously Oscar is a rookie,” Sharizman said when asked how he planned to manage all three drivers.
“It’s slightly a different proposition, and a different way of planning.
“It will bring the situation similar to what Ferrari has gone through last year. But at the moment, we do feel that for example in the case of Oscar, it would take time, but without that expectation, we are aware of how he can progress.
“We have to have a Plan A and a Plan B already for now. That is something that is in the back of our mind. We think it will be OK for us, and we can manage it well, and how we can ensure that the three drivers that we have get up to where they want to be.”
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