Rumors about Renault selling the Alpine F1 operation have been quite regular amid the French team struggling a lot in the sport. Their performance has perenially deteriorated as they have slipped down from being the fourth-best team in 2022 to being one of the slowest teams in 2024 at times.
Amid these sale rumors, Nico Rosberg casually dropped a startling revelation while commentating for FP3 at the Italian GP. Part of the Sky Sports F1 commentary panel besides David Croft and Karun Chandhok, Rosberg said, “It’s in my email. I have a secondary opportunity to buy a part of Alpine.“
Nico Rosberg nonchalantly mentioning that he’s gotten an offer to buy a part of Alpine
NR: I have a secondary opportunity in my email to buy part of alpine
Crofty: what?!? Do you?
Karun: you can’t just lob that into FP3 commentary.. tell us more! pic.twitter.com/gpug8fyjlF
— devyani (@formula_dev) August 31, 2024
This left Croft and Chandhok surprised. The latter also quipped that Rosberg can’t casually bring up such insights into FP3 commentary and not elaborate on it. Rosberg replied that he didn’t remember the specific details, but would try to bring it for tomorrow.
Chandhok was trying to push him to reveal it then itself as the German claimed that it was on his email. The Indian former driver further poked him to pull out his mobile phone and open his email. While there is no official word about Alpine’s willingness to sell their team, these rumors have been going on for a while.
The Enstone outfit’s 2024 struggles stimulated these rumors further. However, ever since last season with multiple key figures leaving and Alpine’s performance taking a step back, there has been a lot of uncertainty about the team.
The internal turmoil at Alpine
In 2023, Alpine were in an anonymous territory on track with no team really fighting them in the midfield. While they were clear of the bottom four teams, the French team were way behind the likes of Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Ferrari fighting for second. Even McLaren — who abysmally started the season at the bottom in 10th — overtook them to finish fourth.
Amid this, Alpine also saw an exodus of several senior figures including the team principal, Otmar Szafnauer. Besides the Romanian, Pat Fry and Alan Permane also left the team to pursue their careers elsewhere. Meanwhile, Szafnauer was abruptly replaced by Bruno Famin after the Belgian GP.
However, Famin couldn’t do much about Alpine’s struggles as their situation got worse at the start of 2024. This has also seen Famin lose his job as the team boss. While the Enstone outfit have made some recovery with the performance, its internal structure seems quite messed up.
BREAKING: Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane to depart Alpine following the Belgian Grand Prix#F1 pic.twitter.com/idRxwoAK93
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 28, 2023
Flavio Briatore has returned to the team as an Executive Advisor and they have hired Oliver Oakes — a team principal from F2 to replace Famin. Briatore’s appointment has stimulated the sale rumors as Alpine are reportedly shutting down their engine program.
However, this would be quite a contrasting move for the investors’ consortium that invested over $200 million last year. This consortium includes big names like Ryan Reynolds, Patrick Mahomes, Anthony Joshua, and Rory McIlroy. So, the French team will have to consider the repercussions for these investors, who have seemingly invested for the long term.
