FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has hinted at a potential intervention by the governing body to halt Mercedes‘ negotiations to acquire Alpine’s Formula 1 project.
The Renault-backed Alpine F1 team is reportedly up for sale, with minority stakeholders Otro Capital in negotiations with various parties.
Up until very recently, former Red Bull Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner was the leading candidate to purchase the 24% stake in the team.
However, with the Anglo-French marque‘s technical partnership with the Silver Arrows off to a strong start, the eight-time Constructors’ Champions seem to have overtaken Horner’s bid.
Many saw this as Toto Wolff’s ploy to block the Briton’s return to the paddock after his ousting in July, last year.
Team Principal Flavio Briatore, however, has confirmed that potential negotiations have been undertaken with Mercedes as an entity and not Wolff, as an individual.
“Every day is a new situation,” he said. “But what I want to say, I know it’s the negotiation from Mercedes – not with Toto, with Mercedes – and we’ll see.
“In this moment, we have three or four potential buyers – don’t forget, we’re talking about the Otro share, nothing to do with Alpine. There are a few candidates ready to do the deal.”
Mercedes’ Alpine F1 bid “not the right way” says Mohammed Ben Sulayem
There has been a lot of hue and cry lately with respect to B-team ownerships in F1.
Most of this has largely originated from McLaren CEO Zak Brown and targeted towards Red Bull’s ownership of Racing Bulls.
Ben Sulayem built on this argument to suggest that if a B-team is going to be acquired with ulterior motives, the FIA would have no qualms in stepping in.
“Who is not interested [in the Otro stake?,” Ben Sulayem said as per The Times.
“Really, everybody is there. But, I feel ownership of two teams, as long as it’s for the right reason… and what is the right reason?
“As long as you are not trying to take it because you don’t want others to take it, or also get voting power when it comes to the regulations, then maybe it’s OK.
“But then I do believe that owning two [teams] is not the right way, this is my personal point of view, but we are looking into that because it’s a complicated area.
“We put our people [to investigate] to see, is it possible? Is it allowed? Is it the right thing?
“There is something called a sporting side. If we lose, honestly, the sporting spirit, I believe that there will not be any more support in [the sport]. So to me, as I said, I’m not with [support of] it 100 per cent.”
As things stand, even if a deal materialises, Alpine’s corporate disclosures indicate that Otro Capital is barred from offloading its shares of the team at least till November this year.
READ MORE – George Russell warns Mercedes of ‘daunting’ gains from F1 rivals