Rumor: Someone to buy 25% of Alpine F1 team (Update)

The announcement of a partnership deal between Alpine and AutoNation in Miami was not quite as the original rumors had suggested, Joe Saward reports in his latest Notebook.

That was a clever partnership to market Alpine road cars in the US market, but it is now clear that there is a parallel deal to sell at last 25 percent of the team to an investor.

That deal is still in the works and no-one is saying who is involved. Renault boss Luca de Meo and Alpine boss Laurent Rossi were both in Florida at the weekend and confirmed the stories, but were not willing to reveal the name of the possible buyer until the deal is finalized.

De Meo did say that the interested party was a US sports and media investment group, but there are dozens of them around.

Jeff Bezos is involved with a company called Overtime, in that field, but he was hanging out in the McLaren camp this past weekend, not with Alpine.

Larry Ellison is also an investor in sports franchises, but he was hanging out in the Red Bull garage, not with Alpine this past weekend.

There were so many big players at the Miami GP, it’s hard to say just who may be looking to invest in the Alpine team.  Mark Cipolloni reporting

–by Mark Cipolloni–

It seems there may be more to this announcement that AutoNation will sponsor the Alpine F1 team at the Miami GP this weekend.

Joe Saward reports that there is a rumor going around that Alpine sold 25% of the team’s shares to AutoNation for around $212 million.

it has been rumored for a while that AutoNation would be the company that will sell Alpine road cars in the US market.

AutoNation has 300 outlets across the US and is based in Fort Lauderdale, close to the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Miami Grand Prix takes place. AutoNation is already an active sponsor in racing, notably in recent years with Alexander Rossi, although that sponsorship has now switched to Kyle Kirkwood.

The firm also has a multi-year deal to be a sponsor of the Miami Grand Prix, and has a long history in sports investing with the Miami Dolphins and several other Florida sports franchises. The late Wayne Huizenga was a partner in the Miami Homestead Speedway.

Saward notes that the AutoNation CEO now is Mike Manley, a British executive who was involved with the Alfa Romeo sponsorship of Sauber while he was CEO of Fiat Chrysler, before the firm jumped into bed with Peugeot to form Stellantis.

If this rumor turns out to be true, Alpine would be the 3rd F1 team with full or partial American ownership – Haas and Williams and 100% owned by Americans.

Andretti Global, if approved, would be the 4th American team on the grid with American ownership.