A simple phrase from the CEO of the Renault Group, Luca de Meo, has sparked a series of rumors around the Alpine Formula 1 team:
“Alpine can capitalize on the financial valuation of the Formula 1 team’s assets.” Our presence in Formula 1 has helped boost brand recognition worldwide. Our team now has a value at the level of the best.”
For analysts, these definitions of the Italian executive do not say anything other than that the team is for sale, and it would be one of the many restructurings that De Meo is carrying out within the group, which includes the recent sale of 50% of its combustion engine division to the Geely Group.
It is known that despite the results obtained by the team (fourth in the constructors’ championship), the scandal of the departure of Oscar Piastri to McLaren and of Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin would have De Meo more than upset with internal management. And also, Renault does not take advantage of the investment, neither at the marketing level (the team is not called Renault), nor at the sports level (it does not win or compete above), or economically (it does not sell its engines as it did a few years ago). .
Corridor rumors indicate that Alpine has three real options for its future in F1:
The first is to stay as it operates until now until 2026, when a new regulatory stage begins in F1, to which up to now it has not yet attached.
The second is to sell the team completely and get out of F1 once again.as Renault has already done three times since the 1980s.
The third is to find a partner and stay on as an engine supplier, something it has also done in the past and with great success.
The most recurring name that emerges today is that of Lotus, the British sports brand with enormous prestige on the F1 tracks., and which belongs to the Geely Group, with whom Renault already has two companies (the motor company and the former Samsung company in Korea). But they are also looking at the Andretti Group, which wants to enter F1 but has no quota, and Porsche, which after the failure of its union with Red Bull is still looking for its place.
Precisely the Chinese group could apply as one of the great interested in also staying with the Formula 1 team in the future.
