The success Liberty Media has tasted as F1’s owners made them venture into another popular motorsport venture in MotoGP, which they started to acquire last year. Since then, there have been more links between the two, with those in F1 being linked to investing in the premiere two-wheeler series. The latest to enter the foray was Alpine and Franco Colapinto couldn’t help but make a hilarious, yet untrue, admission about the same.
Alpine’s name will be visible on the Prima Pramac Yamaha bikes from 2025 onwards. The French brand, whose parent company is Renault, will be the main partner of the team, which features the 2024 Riders’ Champion Jorge Martin.
Colapinto, who recently joined Alpine‘s F1 team as a reserve driver, decided to interact with an official announcement for the same on X (formerly Twitter). Under a post, he commented, “It’s a secret, but I will act as a test driver..”
View this post on Instagram
Not that the MotoGP team couldn’t use some added help, but Colapinto would hardly be the right option for that. Thankfully for both parties, it was just a joke.
Colapinto will be a test driver for Alpine, but not for its partner Prima Pramac Yamaha. Instead, he will help the F1 division grow, and may also likely contribute to the World Endurance Championship project, which the French team has taken quite seriously.
F1’s biggest name linked to a MotoGP team
Colapinto may have been joking about being associated with a MotoGP team, but Lewis Hamilton, according to reports, certainly isn’t.
Although F1’s most successful driver of all time has not confirmed it officially, he is in talks to buy KTM. In June last year, he stated that he was ‘interested’, but added nothing thereafter.
KTM, or Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, has Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder as its riders, and finished P2 in the standings in 2024. But Pit Beirer, Motorsport Director of the team admitted that their financial disarray has made them open to outside investment.
“I can only say that we had very interesting discussions with his management,” he told Speedweek. “It’s no secret that Lewis Hamilton is interested in MotoGP and is thinking about his own team. Here, too, there are concrete talks.”
It’s safe to say that with Hamilton on board, not only will their financial crisis be resolved, but KTM will also draw in a lot more eyeballs which will benefit the team commercially. Whether Hamilton takes the deal any further, remains to be seen.
