Christian Horner has links to a group of investors interested in buying a 24% stake in Alpine’s team (Image: Getty)
Mercedes have ended talks to buy a stake in the Alpine Formula One team after a deal collapsed over the price of purchasing a minority shareholding, according to reports. Renault are their majority owner, but sold a 24% stake three years ago to Otro Capital, a group whose investors include Anthony Joshua, Rory McIlroy and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It is those shares that Mercedes, who began supplying Alpine’s engines at the start of this season, are said to have agreed in principle to purchase, but that deal was with Renault, not Otro. The team’s majority owners can veto any sale until September, which they would reportedly use to block any interested group with ties to longtime Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who is known to have been meeting with investors and spearheading a group that is interested in the shares for sale.
The BBC cite a source at Renault who said, in reference to Mercedes ending their discussions: “We understand that discussions have stopped.” A spokesperson from the Silver Arrows previously said in March: “Mercedes is a key strategic partner of Alpine, and we are being kept apprised of the latest developments.”
Alpine’s executive director and de facto team principal, Flavio Briatore, also spoke about the negotiations around the same time. He said: “Every day is a new situation, I don’t know what the latest one is, but what I say is that I know it’s a negotiation with Mercedes, not with Toto [Wolff, personally], with Mercedes, and we [will] see. In this moment, we have three or four potential buyers.
“Don’t forget, we’re talking about the Otro shares, nothing to do with Alpine. It’s the share owned by this hedge fund, it’s called Otro, an American fund, they want to sell the 24 per cent, and a few candidates are ready to do the deal.”
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Alpine executive director Flavio Briatore said in March that their talks are not with Toto Wolff (Image: Getty)
Briatore ruled out buying them himself after being asked, responding: “No, no, no, no. Just looking. I’m just looking at what’s going on and just watching what’s going on. For us, we have no communication with Toto at the moment. So, if somebody buys the shares, we are very happy.”
He also mentioned Red Bull, who acquired the team that is now known as Racing Bulls while Horner was their team principal. Briatore said, when asked whether Alpine could guarantee independence from Mercedes in voting: “I think so.
“Red Bull has been a pioneer already in the last 10 years or 15 years. And like I told you, Mercedes is looking to buy Otro’s 24%, normally in one company, 75% decide, and 25% is the passenger, and this is what the reality is.”
This summer marks a year since Horner left Red Bull with a sizeable payoff after 20 years in charge. He has since been on gardening leave, a period which is understood to have ended earlier in May.
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