Struggling F1 team Alpine will pull the plug on Renault as its engine provider

Struggling Formula 1 team Alpine confirmed it will no longer use its homemade Renault engines in 2026.

Alpine said in a statement on Monday that its F1 engine factory at Viry-Chatillon on the outskirts of Paris would become an engineering center called Hypertech Alpine, starting from the end of this year.

It will be dedicated to the future Supercar Alpine as well as research into batteries and electric motors, and continue its endurance car and rally programs.

Renault will therefore stop working on F1 engines for 2026, when new regulations come into place.

However, F1 engines will continue to be supplied to Alpine for 2025 and the new center will keep an eye on developments in F1 through its monitoring cell.

“F1 activities at Viry, excluding the development of a new engine, will continue until the end of the 2025 season,” the statement said. “(The monitoring cell) aims to maintain the knowledge and skill of experts in this sporting discipline, and to remain at the forefront of innovation for Hypertech Alpine’s various projects.”

In July, Alpine's outgoing team principal Bruno Famin said Alpine was considering becoming an engine buyer. According to reports, Mercedes will supply Alpine's engines from 2026 onward.

Renault was once a prestigious name in F1 and used to sell engines to other teams, including the Red Bull title winners when Sebastian Vettel clinched four straight titles from 2010-13. Fernando Alonso's two F1 titles in 2005 and 2006 were with Renault.

But the Alpine team has been struggling and lacks speed and reliability.

Alpine Renault sits ninth out of 10 teams in the constructors' championship and its French drivers, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, have failed to score any points in the past three races.

They have also been hit by personnel changes.

In March, two design executives quit after a disappointing performance in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Then, in June, the team announced that former Renault team principal Flavio Briatore was returning to F1 in an advisory role for Alpine.

Alpine then named Oliver Oakes as its new team principal.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly of France walks through pits during the qualifying session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Mohd Rasfan/Pool Photo via AP)

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly of France steers his car during the third practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon of France walks through pits during the qualifying session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Mohd Rasfan/Pool Photo via AP)

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon of France steers his car during the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon of France steers his car during the third practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched small ground raids against Hezbollah as it prepares for a larger ground operation in Lebanon, officials said Monday.

A U.S. official said Israel has informed the U.S about the raids that are underway and that Israel has not provided timing on plans for a larger operation. The U.S. has not told Israel to halt all of its operations in Lebanon and wouldn’t do so as Washington supports Israel’s right to defend itself, according to the official.

A Western official, a diplomat in Cairo whose country is directly involved in de-escalation efforts, said an Israeli ground operation in Lebanon is “imminent.” The diplomat said Israel has shared its plans with the United States and other Western allies and that the operation will “be limited.”

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. It was not clear if Israel had made a final decision on a broader operation. The Israeli military did not comment.

Hezbollah vowed Monday it was ready to keep fighting even after much of its top command, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, was recently wiped out.

Israeli strikes have killed Nasrallah and six of his top commanders and officials in the last 10 days, and have hit what the military says are thousands of militant targets across large parts of Lebanon. Over 1,000 people have been killed in the country in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.

Early Monday, an airstrike hit a residential building in central Beirut, wiping out one apartment, damaging others, and killing three Palestinian militants, as Israel appeared to send a clear message that no part of Lebanon is out of bounds.

Despite the heavy blow Hezbollah has suffered in recent weeks, acting leader Naim Kassem said in a televised statement that if Israel decides to launch a ground offensive, the group's fighters are ready. He said the commanders killed have already been replaced.

“Israel was not able to affect our (military) capabilities,” Kassem said in a televised statement, the first time any senior Hezbollah figure has been seen since Nasrallah was killed. “There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post.”

He added that Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a stalemate in their monthlong war in 2006, anticipated “the battle could be long.”

A founding member of the militant group who had been Nasrallah’s longtime deputy, Kassem will remain in his acting position until the group’s leadership elects a replacement. The man widely expected to take over the top post is Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah who oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs.

Hezbollah has significantly increased its rocket attacks in the past week to several hundred daily, but most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas. Several people have been wounded in Israel. There have been no fatalities since two soldiers were killed near the border on Sept. 19.

But Hezbollah’s capabilities remain unclear.

As recently as two weeks ago, a strike like Monday's in central Beirut — outside of the main areas where Hezbollah operates and next to a busy transportation hub normally crowded with buses and taxis — would have been seen as a major escalation and likely followed by a long-range Hezbollah strike into Israel.

But the unspoken rules of the long-running conflict no longer seem to be in effect.

It's possible that Hezbollah is holding back to save resources for a bigger battle, including a threatened Israeli ground invasion. But the militant group might also be in disarray after Israeli intelligence apparently penetrated its highest levels.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meeting with Israeli troops on Monday, said Israel would “use all the capabilities we have,” hinting at a ground operation. “You are part of this effort,” he added.

Some European countries began pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon on Monday. Germany, which has been calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon since October 2023, sent a military plane to evacuate diplomats’ relatives and others. Bulgaria sent a government jet to get the first group of its citizens out, with priority being given to families with children and vulnerable groups.

In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including the massive strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah. But it had not hit locations closer to the city center.

The strike early Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small, leftist faction that has not been meaningfully involved in months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has not claimed the strike but is widely assumed to have carried it out.

Also Monday, Hamas announced that its top commander in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, was killed with his family in an airstrike on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre. The Israeli military confirmed that it had targeted him.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sharif was an employee, and was put on administrative leave without pay in March as it investigated allegations about his political activities. Israel has accused the agency, known as UNRWA, of links to Palestinian militant groups, while the agency says it is committed to neutrality and works to prevent any such infiltration.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into northern Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into Israel sparked the war in the Palestinian territory. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies and both supported by Iran, and Hezbollah said it would continue the attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians until there was a cease-fire in Gaza.

Israel responded to the rockets with airstrikes in Lebanon, and the fighting has steadily escalated over the past year. The Lebanese government says the fighting may have displaced up to a million people, although the U.N. estimate is around 200,000.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have also been displaced. Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the attacks stop and its citizens can return to their homes.

The United States and its allies have called for a cease-fire, hoping to avoid further escalation that could draw in Iran and set off a wider war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown little interest, as his country racks up military achievements against a longtime foe.

France, which has close ties to Lebanon, has joined the United States in calling for a cease-fire. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking during a visit to Beirut Monday, urged Israel to refrain from a ground offensive.

Barrot also called on Hezbollah to stop firing on Israel, saying the group “bears heavy responsibility in the current situation, given its choice to enter the conflict.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, speaking after meeting with Barrot, said the country is committed to an immediate cease-fire followed by the deployment of Lebanese troops in the south, in keeping with a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war but was never fully implemented.

Hezbollah, which boasts tens of thousands of battle-hardened fighters and long-range missiles capable of hitting anywhere inside Israel, has long been seen as the most powerful militant group in the region and a key partner to Iran in both threatening and deterring Israel.

But Hezbollah has never faced an onslaught quite like this one, which began with a sophisticated attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies in mid-September that killed dozens of people and wounded around 3,000 — including many fighters but also many civilians.

This story has been updated to correct that Monday’s strike in central Beirut hit an apartment building, but it did not level it.

Melzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed reporting.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot speaks during a press conference at the Pine Palace, which is the residence of the French ambassador, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Damaged cars are parked in front of a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Lebanese policeman looks at damaged apartments that were hit by Israeli strike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Damaged apartments, right, are seen in a building that was hit by Israeli strike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Two women take a selfie next to a newly painted graffiti of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a day after Hezbollah confirms its leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People inspect a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A photographer documents damage in a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Policemen and civil defense workers stand next to damaged cars near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Policemen and civil defense workers inspect a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A fire engine ladder extends up a building that was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A firefighter inspects a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)