The question of who ends up owning a piece of Alpine matters to the FIA. The subject of multi-team ownership came up again when it emerged that Mercedes was one of the parties interested in buying Otro Capital’s share of Alpine.
Now the FIA is weighing in, and the governing body’s position is, at best, diplomatically tortured.
Otro Capital put its 24% stake in Alpine on the market after paying $233 million for the shares back in 2023. The rising value of Formula 1 means Alpine is now estimated to be worth around $3 billion, putting the stake’s potential price tag as high as $720 million.
Until recently, Christian Horner, the former Red Bull principal, was considered the frontrunner. That changed when Mercedes, now supplying engines to Alpine under a deal running to at least 2030, entered the race and appears to have overtaken his bid.
Alpine’s de facto boss Flavio Briatore clarified the situation, confirming it is Mercedes as an entity in negotiations, not specifically Toto Wolff. “Every day is a new situation,” Briatore said. “But what I want to say, I know it’s the negotiation from Mercedes — not with Toto, with Mercedes — and we’ll see.”
The FIA’s Problem Is Partly of Its Own Making
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem spoke at the Miami Grand Prix and made his personal position clear while simultaneously hedging on everything that matters. “Who isn’t interested in Otro’s share?” Ben Sulayem asked. “Really, everyone’s in the running. But I believe that owning two teams, as long as it’s for the right reason… and what is the right reason?”
“As long as you’re not trying to take control of a team simply because you don’t want others to, or to gain more voting power when drafting rules, then maybe it’s acceptable.” “But I believe that having two teams is not the right approach. That’s my personal view, but we are looking into it because it’s a complex area. We’ve tasked our teams with investigating to see: Is it possible? Is it allowed? Is it the right thing to do?” “There’s what we call the sporting aspect. If we honestly lose the sporting spirit, I think there will be no more support for this sport. So for me, as I said, I don’t support this 100%.” The FIA examining the legality of one manufacturer owning two teams is a reasonable exercise. The awkward part is that any move by the FIA to outlaw multi-team ownership could also force Red Bull to divest Racing Bulls, which it has owned for 20 years. Red Bull currently own two of the sport’s 11 teams, and while they operate independently, all drivers are centrally contracted and the movement of senior personnel between the two is liquid. The FIA has never intervened on that arrangement. Asking whether a Mercedes stake is “the right thing to do” while Racing Bulls pulls aside for Red Bull on track – as happened at Miami – is a question that cuts both ways. McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who has been openly critical of multi-team ownership structures for years, also raised concerns over the Alpine situation, warning that increasingly close relationships between teams risk undermining both sporting fairness and the integrity of the championship. Under the terms of the original investment, Otro is subject to a lock-up period and cannot freely transfer its holding until September, with Renault believed to hold approval rights over any potential transaction. Renault has already confirmed its want to stay in control of the process: the company’s CFO on Alpine’s board was recently replaced by Guillaume Rosso, Renault’s global head of mergers and acquisitions, who took on the role on April 7. Ben Sulayem also made clear he expects Horner to return to the paddock one way or another, calling him a figure the sport “misses.” Whether that amounts to a gentle nudge toward the Otro stake or just a president being characteristically open about his friends in the sport is hard to say. What isn’t hard to say is that the FIA has an answer to provide before September, and “it’s a complex area” won’t cut it much longer.