Alfa Romeo has decided to leave F1 at the end of the 2023 F1 season. The Italian automotive giants left the sport following their five-year partnership with Sauber. Now, with Alfa Romeo’s exit as the title sponsor, the team will now be called Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber instead.
The Swiss company announced their final name for the 2024 F1 entry with the FIA recently. Nevertheless, it is expected that they are ready to go back to their 2018 name despite Reuters hinting at having Stellantis as their name before it is changed to Audi in 2026.
Alfa Romeo has been the title sponsor for the Swiss team since 2019 and therefore, had its name in the forefront. However, the decision to move out of the team wasn’t a sudden one for Alfa Romeo.
They confirmed their split ahead of the team’s major takeover by Audi, and it is most likely to be a complete takeover in the 2026 F1 season. Therefore, the Volkswagen-owned company will have the majority of its operations from that year.
Hence, it did not make sense for the Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles-owned Alfa Romeo to stay in the team anymore. While the company were keen to stay in F1, they could not find any partner.
How did Alfa Romeo try to stay in F1?
After Alfa Romeo found that their days with Sauber were numbered, they wanted to go different ways. One such way was to tie up with the American team Haas.
Unfortunately, the partnership between the two failed to materialize. When asked to comment about this, Haas boss Guenther Steiner said he had no idea about the same as the Alfa Romeo’s higher officials were yet to strike a deal with the American team.
As the talks did not materialize, Steiner and his team partnered with American money transfer company Moneygram. They have now partnered with Haas after the American team’s partnership with Russian title sponsor company Uralkali came to an end.
Nevertheless, Alfa Romeo are now having to see themselves out of F1 against their wishes. However, they might be back in the future if they can strike a deal with a team in the foreseeable future.
