How long until Alpine sells their team?
They’re not. Briatore’s pitch to Alpine/Renault leadership is “you need the team for marketing purposes, but the own engine development at Viry actively hinders your goals and you should purchase Merc engines instead”.
Not until they have gone through another 100 races plan.
I was gonna comment “Isn’t it a little bit late for 2025 as they should have already started designing the new chassis by now?” then I read this
While a change of engine for next season would trigger some extra effort for Alpine in sorting out new installation for its 2025 car that is already being worked on, a switch to Mercedes would bring a likely immediate competitive boost because it is widely accepted that the current Renault power unit is down on power compared to the opposition.