15/04/2024
NEWS STORY
Alpine dismisses media claim that the team is up for sale following disastrous start to the season.
One of three teams yet to score a point, Alpine is officially tenth in the standings behind Williams (8th) and Stake (9th), its best results being a 13th in Jeddah (Ocon) and Melbourne (Gasly).
Renault's original 5-year plan a distant memory the French outfit was already struggling with a power unit significantly down on power, while the chassis have been little better.
The issues weren't restricted to the track however with numerous management restructures that have, if nothing else, had the team's HR department working flat-out.
First there was Laurent Rossi, then Otmar Szafnauer, followed by Alan Permane and Pat Fry, while as recently as last month technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer left the French outfit, as Joe Burnell was announced as technical director (engineering), David Wheater (technical director aerodynamics) and Ciaron Pilbeam (technical director performance).
Last weekend saw a raft of updates, but once again the team struggled, with Ocon finishing 15th and his teammate 16th.
While things are bad, and with little sign of improvement, certainly in the short term, it came as a surprise when it was claimed on Tuesday that Renault was considering selling the team.
Alpine was quick to react.
"The rumours and stories about the team being for sale are false," it said in a statement. "The team is categorically not for sale."
Fact is, over the years Renault has treated the sport very much like there was a revolving door indeed, and somewhat ironically, as reported in the Ted Toleman obituary, the Enstone outfit started life as Benetton, which had bought Toleman's team, before being bought by Renault which subsequently left only to return as Lotus Renault, then back to Renault F1 and finally in 2021 was renamed Alpine.
A number of high-profile sports stars are said to have bought stakes in the team, however well-placed sources insist that no money actually changed hands and that the deals were merely to raise the profiles of all concerned.
That said, with Zak Brown claiming that every team is worth "north of £1bn" and F1 insisting that there are numerous entrants seeking to buy existing teams and enter the sport, should Alpine change its mind it can expect to be inundated with offers.