The future of the Alpine Formula 1 team is allegedly up in the air as rumours hint the parent company Renault could look to sell the team on amid poor performances.
Alpine has endured a dismal 2024 campaign four rounds in with 0 points to its name and a car that is arguably one of the worst in the field.
For a fully-fledged works outfit, this isn’t the required standard and given Renault chose to rebrand the F1 team in 2021 to help push its Alpine sportscar brand, the downturn in form has marketing complications to boot.
According to Autosport, rumours began swirling in the Suzuka paddock that Alpine could be up for sale, but with the added condition any potential buyer uses Renault as a power unit supplier.
Team Enstone has often been interlinked with the Viry-based engine facility, especially throughout the Renault Group-owned periods.
However, the party line remains that Alpine isn’t for sale with a statement from the F1 team saying “The rumours and stories about the team being for sale are false. The team is categorically not for sale.”
Still, given the tumultuous period Alpine has sustained in the last 12 months a sale wouldn’t be a surprise, especially with an outside team keen on forcing its way into the F1 picture.
After setting out its 2023 target to challenge the top teams slowly transpired to a mid-table slump, Alpine parted company with its former CEO Laurent Rossi, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and long-standing senior heads Alan Permane and Pat Fry before the European leg of the season reached its conclusion.
Bruno Famin has since stepped in to take control of the team, but after Alpine’s limp start to the season with a heavily revised car aimed at turning its fortunes around, Technical Director Matt Harman and Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer departed ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
In Harman’s place is a three-pronged technical structure similar to McLaren’s approach with Joe Burnell (engineering), Ciaron Pilbeam (performance) and David Wheather (aerodynamics) all reporting to Famin.
Subsequently, long-standing team member and Advisor Bob Bell left the outfit to join Aston Martin as its new Executive Director.
The upheaval off the track and lack of performance on it won’t sit well with either Renault or the F1 team’s new batch of US investors featuring sporting and film stars alike who bought a €200 million stake in the squad last summer valuing it at €800.
Should Renault decide to sell, those US-based investors may just call upon Andretti to swoop in and pick up the baton dropped by the French marque.
Michael Andretti has seen multiple attempts to get onto the F1 grid fail, first a takeover of Sauber in 2022 went awry and secondly an original team bid, approved by the FIA, was knocked back by Formula One Management last year.
Still, Andretti, whose eponymous outfit was poised to be an Alpine engine customer before bringing in its own engine partner in General Motors, has continued building his F1 efforts, having recently purchased a site in Silverstone to develop his F1 dream.
FOM and F1’s teams’ standing is they’d rather not split the profitable pie that has been collectively wrought from the financial fears of covid to the strong business the series and its teams enjoy today.
Instead, the preferred point of entry for a new outfit is to buy an existing team’s place on the grid as F1 under Liberty Media steps further toward a US Sport-inspired franchise model.
If rumours align with reality, then Andretti is likely in pole position to snatch Alpine’s spot on the F1 grid, giving Renault a large sum of money to soften the blow of another F1 exit, Andretti its long sought-after spot within the series and the remaining teams the satisfaction of keeping on to the same slice of the prize fund as before.
Everybody wins.
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