Alpine respond to team sale rumours after troubled start to F1 2024
Alpine deny there's any truth to the possibility of the team being put up for sale by the Renault Group.
Rumours recently suggested that Alpine could be up for sale, with the Enstone team since responding to the speculation.
There’s no denying that Alpine is enduring a difficult start to the F1 2024 season, with the team mired at the back in 10th position with zero points after the first four rounds of the championship.
Alpine knock back sale rumours following Japan showing
With Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly coming home in 15th and 16th places at Suzuka, continuing the dry spell the team is enduring, a report in Motorsport’s global and Spanish subsidiaries suggested that the Renault Group has had enough and is considering selling up.
Certainly, it has been a turbulent time for the Renault factory squad over the past 12 months. Having finished fourth in 2022, the aim to close the gap to the top three teams was missed during last season.
With the A523 a less competitive beast, there was a revolving door of management as Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was sidelined by the group CEO Luca de Meo in favour of Philippe Krief.
Team boss Otmar Szafnauer parted ways with Enstone just before the summer break, replaced by Bruno Famin, while long-term technical leaders Alan Permane and Pat Fry both departed – Permane is now with RB, while Fry has switched to Williams.
With the team having since slumped to the very back of the grid, a difficult situation to accept for a factory team representing a huge automotive group – particularly one that makes its own power units – a possible attempt at a sale isn’t difficult to envision.
But Alpine has told PlanetF1.com that the suggestions the team is for sale are completely wide of the mark.
“The rumours and stories about the team being for sale are false,” a team spokesperson said.
“The team is categorically not for sale.”
According to the Motorsport report, any potential sale would come with the stipulation that the Renault power unit continues to be used – ensuring the security of the staff who develop and manufacture the engine from Viry-Chatillon in France.
Motorsport claims that “interested parties would want to involve the use of their own power units, or those of other manufacturers with whom there are already links” – the stipulation thus having the effect of reducing interest.
Other recent rumours involving Alpine that circulated this week included a suggestion that Esteban Ocon’s contract has not been picked up for 2025, with Alpine board members alleged to have been unhappy about him discussing the possibility of joining Mercedes in place of the departing Lewis Hamilton.
However, PlanetF1.com understands this rumour is without basis, as discussions between Alpine and Ocon regarding his future continue.
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Alpine complete Otro Capital investment
The unsubstantiated rumours of a sale come just three months after Groupe Renault closed the investment by Otro Capital that brought the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Rory McIlroy, Juan Mata, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Joshua into play as investors.
Otro Capital pumped some €200 million into the F1 team, in return for a 24 per cent equity stake, with the deal finalised last December. The move resulted in Alec Scheiner, co-founder and partner of Otro Capital, joining the Alpine F1 board.
The transaction valued Alpine’s F1 team at around $900 million.
Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are also involved in investment into the Alpine F1 team, through Reynold’s Maximum Effort Investments, which is part of Otro’s 24 per cent stake.
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