The Alpine F1 team is in enormous trouble after reports came out that multiple sponsors decided to desert the team. This comes right after the French team decided to paint their livery pink. As per sources, Alpine lost sponsors worth over $21.35 million in current conditions.
As many as eight sponsors deserted the team only because of the pink livery in the A523 this year. The Enstone-based team painted their car all pink for the title sponsor BWT, an Austrian company. The sponsors are believed to have walked out after they said they weren’t consulted about the livery.
The sponsors said that Alpine changed their livery from blue to pink, and the team didn’t take them into consideration and discuss the change. As things stand, the new sponsors also don’t want to be on a pink car, the marketing team of Alpine alleged.
Sources said Mapfre, DuPont, Data.ai, Rci, Mandiant, Siemens, Volume Graphics, and Linde had renounced the team immediately. Admittedly, these sponsors are mainly from France and have been with the French team for a long time.
Sponsorship loss a personal crisis for Alpine boss
The draconian loss of sponsors just at the start of the season is a big loss for the team and its principal. Boss Otmar Szafnauer, who personally brought BWT to Alpine in 2022, is expected to face the wrath of this.
Furthermore, it was Szafnauer who brought the Austrian company to Formula 1 back in 2017, and they were a long-time sponsor of the Aston Martin F1 team until they switched sides.
As things stand, the Alpine boss will find it hard to shrug off the responsibility for the ignorance that led to other sponsors deserting the team and causing millions of dollars of jeopardy, despite the recent corruption scandal.
Szafnauer is unbothered about the loss of sponsors
According to a former F1 principal, he had already warned the Romanian about the possible jeopardy. He said, “I know for a fact that Otmar was warned about what would happen and shrugged it off. It is entirely his fault.”
Four of the lost sponsors’ deals were for three years, and all four have chosen to leave. They were Volume Graphics, Linde, Mandiant, and Rci. Another new sponsor that only joined in 2022 left already.
However, the two major losses were the loss of Mapfre and DuPont. DuPont, a traditional sponsor of the French national soccer team, has been sponsoring the French-based F1 team for over 20 years.
DuPont paid Alpine an amount of $4 million. Furthermore, Mapfre, the Spanish company that paid $10 million annually, has also cut ties after five years of association.
