Alpine paying price for “courageous” F1 engine development push

The Renault engine lagged behind rivals over the past couple of seasons, but the powertrain division in Viry took a big step over the winter, and this season its performance has been greatly improved.

However, there have been ongoing reliability issues, and both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon dropped out of the points with engine failures in Singapore.

Alonso is likely to have to take another new PU and thus a grid penalty, possibly in Austin, although the team…