BWT Alpine Formula One Team opened its Enstone factory to the Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team on Thursday, days before MotoGP’s British Grand Prix at nearby Silverstone. Riders Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlioglu toured the site on a Yamaha R9 showbike while the Formula One squad sits idle under the FIA’s mandatory summer shutdown. The visit underlines the growing overlap between two championships that now share an owner in Liberty Media.
Alpine’s Formula One operation is normally off-limits and, for the next fortnight, largely switched off. That made Thursday’s guest list unusual: the Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team, sponsored by Alpine Cars, arrived at Enstone with its riders ahead of Round 12 of the MotoGP season at Silverstone — a circuit the team says lies around 20 miles (roughly 32 km) from its headquarters.
A factory tour during the shutdown
Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlioglu explored a site that is currently far quieter than usual. Alpine, like all 10 Formula One teams, is observing the FIA’s summer shutdown — a mandatory 14 consecutive days during which car development work must stop. Most of Enstone’s 900-strong workforce is away, with the team using the window for factory improvements and maintenance.
The pair covered the race bays that house the A526, the team’s Human High Performance Centre, the Operations Room, Flavio Briatore’s office and the reception area, where the trophy collection sits alongside the 2019 R.S.19 and the R25 that took the 2005 World Championship. Much of it was captured for social media, with the riders moving between buildings aboard a Yamaha R9 showbike.
They were joined by their engineers and mechanics, plus Pramac’s Moto2 riders Izan Guevara and Alberto Ferrandez — the former currently second in the Moto2 standings.
Two paddocks, one owner
Crossover visits between Formula One and MotoGP have become routine, helped by Liberty Media’s ownership of both series. Alpine race driver Pierre Gasly holds an investment interest in a MotoGP team, and the connections run further: Miller races with the #43, the same number carried by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
“After all, Formula One and MotoGP have a likeness and now the same owner in Liberty Media so it’s a great moment to show one another our worlds,” said Briatore. “I am a great friend of Paolo [Campinoti], team owner of Pramac, and I wish him, his team and his riders the very best at Silverstone this weekend.”
Pramac team owner Paolo Campinoti said the visit carried a lesson as much as a photo opportunity. “To see Fernando Alonso’s championship winning car was absolutely fantastic and I know everyone at Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team took great pleasure in seeing the factory,” he said. “There is a lot we can learn from Formula One and now we look forward to racing this weekend at Silverstone.”
Form heading into Silverstone
Both riders arrive at the British round after MotoGP’s own summer break, following a double points finish at Germany’s Sachsenring in early July. Miller has scored points at six of the last seven races. Razgatlioglu, a MotoGP rookie in 2026 and a three-time World Superbike champion, has taken five points-scoring finishes from eleven starts in his first season in the premier class.
What it means
For Alpine, the shutdown is a rare period when the factory can be shown off without disrupting development, and the visit doubles as promotion for a sponsorship that links the road-car brand to a MotoGP grid. For Pramac, it is access to a Formula One operation whose processes — from human performance to trackside operations — are increasingly studied across motorsport. The MotoGP British Grand Prix runs at Silverstone this weekend.
Source: media.alpinecars.com