How Alpine’s F1 Failure is Drowning $218 Million from Hollywood, NFL, Boxing, and Golf Worlds

Change is the only constant; a law that governs the world, even Formula 1. We witness it every few years when championship reigns change hands after regulatory changes. Even though the top teams always steal the spotlight, the effects are felt by the entire grid. Sometimes the changes affect a team in such a manner to such a degree that they are unable to control the repercussions. Things become out of control and spiral into uncontrollable chaos before a factory reset or dissolution. We fear after botching their factory reset, a dissolution is exactly where the Alpine F1 team is headed.

The French team went through a major overhaul during the 2023 season. This was triggered after Alpine fell down the pecking order on the grid significantly. Not only Aston Martin, but after the midway point even McLaren was head and shoulders above the Enstone-based outfit speaking the fury of the bosses. This led to a chain of events that could very well result in Renault dissolving Alpine or changing its course in F1 drastically.

Is Alpine drowning the money of its new investors from the Hollywood, Golf, Boxing, NFL, and Footballing world?

There is no doubt in the qualities of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The two Frenchmen are exceptional drivers and have proved it with a win each and multiple podiums to their names. However, in Formula 1, a driver is only as good as his car and the A524 is far from it. We are not sure what went wrong but in the third year of the same regulations, the Alpine F1 team has gone backwards in their attempts to become competitive.

This has been highlighted in their overall standings as well. They were reduced to 6th place in the constructor’s standings in 2023 after finishing 4th in 2022. The 2023 result became evident with both McLaren and Aston Martin significantly faster than Alpine throughout the season. Despite that, both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly secured a podium for the team. This helped keep the trust in the team which the bosses capitalized on with a round of investment thanks to F1’s high demand.

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds popularized the idea. After his Wrexham exploits, the Canadian actor ventured into the world of F1 with his investment in Alpine. Reynolds, along with his Wrexham partner Rob McElhenney, Michael B. Jordan, Otro Capital, and RedBird Capital, acquired a 24% stake in the Alpine F1 team. This stake was worth a whopping $218 million valuing the Alpine BWT F1 team at $900 million.

The likes of British boxer Anthony Joshua, and Footballers Trent Alexander Arnold and Juan Mata also joined the consortium. On the American side of the world, NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce were also part of the list. Last but not least Golf legend Rory McIlroy also put his hard-earned money in Alpine.

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It doesn’t seem like a good idea now, does it? Well, it’s all part of the process and nobody expects instant results. Well, we hope these investors did not because along with Gasly, they will need to trust the process and wait for their time to shine because success doesn’t come overnight, especially in this competitive world of F1.

Pierre Gasly is trusting the process following a major overhaul at Alpine.

Thanks to all the ongoing off-track drama, a major update concerning Alpine was sidelined. After a horrendous start to the campaign in Bahrain with a Q1 exit, two high-level executives resigned from their posts. We are talking about the two men who were tasked with designing the 2024 Challenger, the Technical Director Matt Harman and the Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer.

They follow in the footsteps of other many Alpine high-level personnel who have left the team in the past year. We saw Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, Sporting Director Alan Permane, Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry, and CEO Laurent Rossi all departing. Such a massive overhaul calls for some unrest in the team and we are witnessing it.

The team has undergone a lot and no amount of money can help them bounce back, at least not instantly. That’s exactly the idea. We believe Alpine will use that money and become extremely competitive but it will take some time and we can’t judge the team’s future based on their performance in the first two races, which was abysmal. Instead, we need to side with Pierre Gasly and be patient while trusting the process.

When asked to comment about the recent exits, Gasly said, “Obviously I’ve worked with them since I joined the team and I was pretty close with them. It came as a surprise, but then at the same time I trust my team, I trust the people in charge of the management, Bruno, Luca [de Meo, CEO of Alpine parent company Renault].”

“I see positive changes in the team behind the scenes. Obviously, it doesn’t reflect yet on the race track but I trust the people in charge,” he concluded.

WATCH THIS STORY: Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney Invested $0 to Acquire 24% Stake in Alpine F1 as Wrexham Masterplan Continues to Pay Dividends

To summarize, we don’t believe Alpine is wasting away its money after this recent round of investment. It’s just going through many changes which has upset the team’s current order. Once the French team has all its ducks in order and is working like a well-oiled machine, we’re sure we will see a different side of them. Until then, they’ll have to practice a lot of patience.

Editorial Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of EssentiallySports.