F1: Alpine opens the door for Andretti Global to buy into team
Mario and Michael Andretti have both said the Andretti Global F1 effort is still “full speed ahead for a team in F1 in 2024”, despite the pushback from Formula 1’s leading figures, leaving everyone scratching their head as to how that is possible?
Andretti said the team are working full steam ahead on an F1 entry, and are doing so as if F1 has already given them the nod to enter the championship for 2024.
Unless they have the green light behind the scenes that we are not aware of, we believe Andretti’s only avenue into F1 at this point is to buy an existing team, or team with an OEM not currently in F1.
Back in April, the CEO of Renault confirmed that the French carmaker has teamed up to support Michael Andretti’s bid to become a new team in Formula 1 with the supply of its powertrain.
Now the door may be opened even wider.
Earlier today, the Renault Group’s Press Release contained the following about Alpine:
“Alpine is set to expand globally with half of its future growth outside of Europe, leveraging commercial partnerships and investors support.
“Alpine is open to capitalise on the financial valuation of its F1 Team assets”
It must be stressed that it would be a stretch to suggest that Alpine is desperate or looking for immediate investment.
Still, even a conservative interpretation would suggest that Alpine is open to investment from a third party, like Andretti Global.
This is our first hint that Alpine F1 has opened the door to another investor, and while the Andretti’s likely prefer their own team where they have 100% control, that appears unlikely in today’s political F1 environment.
It may be best to get their foot in the door with an established team and then see where the future takes them.
And this way they could save the $200M entry fee into F1 and put it into buying a percentage of the Alpine F1 team with the goal of eventually taking 100% ownership when Renault decides to pull Alpine out of F1, which given their lackluster performance, could be sooner than we all think. So far, they have only one win to show for their huge F1 investment – Esteban Ocon winning the Hungarian GP in 2021 and they have lost two top drivers – Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri.
Currently, called the BWT Alpine F1 team, we could see it renamed to the Andretti Alpine F1 Team.
Although the FIA and Liberty Media’s doors to F1 are not yet opened to the American motor racing entity, Renault has signed up to supply Andretti with engines in the event that Andretti gets the green light.
“It’s interesting because there is a great project behind it, there are competent people who have the means and it can be good for Formula 1,” Luca de Meo (ITA) Groupe Alpine Chief Executive Officer said.
Andretti have announced the commencement of building a base of operations for ‘Andretti Global’, which will serve as a focal point for all of Andretti’s racing initiatives. The new factory is set to cost the company $200m [£170m], with a 575,000 square-foot facility set to be constructed in Fishers, Indiana, with a target to be operational by 2025, and bring their teams – including ‘future racing initiatives’ – under one roof in the process.
“We’re working every single day on this project, with the intention to be on the grid in 2024,” Mario Andretti told PlanetF1 in a recent interview.
“We’re preparing as if we were given the go-ahead. So Michael is on it, and that’s what we expect to do. We’re certainly not giving up. It’s a very serious project for us, and we’re ready to make that investment.
“Honestly, [the reception] has been extremely disappointing, obviously, so far. But, at the same time, we’re just trying to come up with whatever is asked of us, we’re trying to satisfy it – I don’t know what else we can do.”
“Toto Wolff has spoken very openly about our credibility,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. “I find the criticism very disrespectful because we have been active in motorsport much longer than he has. I respect his success so far, but he has no reason to look down on us.”
You hear different opinions sometimes, from different teams and so forth, and you wonder why there’s some disrespect out there that I don’t know that’s what we deserve,” he said.
“Our intentions are good for the sport. I don’t know why that investment wouldn’t be good, especially when you’re looking at a season going to 24 races next year, where it’s going to be such incredible stress on all the teams. To be able to ensure that you can guarantee a full grid, if you have a team or so potentially dropping out for a race or whatever, at least you have some insurance with 11 teams – that’s 22 prospective drivers out there.”
Conclusion
While the Alpine F1 door is open, the real question is whether the Andrettis want to walk through it.
Mark C. reporting for AntoRacing1.com
