Alpine needs Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney to raise cash for F1 title bid

“Our team is slightly smaller than top teams. So we’re just going to continue growing, expanding up to a point where we have similar structures and the way of doing makes a difference. We believe the way of doing will make a difference because we have expertise here.”

F1’s cost cap has turned teams from money pits into potential profit centres. Instead of ploughing every spare penny into improving performance, teams are now restricted to spending just under $140m (£110m) this year.

At the same time, the popularity of the sport is booming, attracting more sponsors and greater revenue from Formula 1. Successful teams can offer owners and investors a return.

Williams is already owned by a private equity firm; Mercedes has sold a share of its team to chemical firm Ineos; and now Alpine has announced its new stakeholders.

“If you look at what [F1 commercial rights holder] Liberty has done, fixing the structure of the sport with the cost cap and then launching the sport in the United States, we think it’s a perfect time to invest,” said Alec Scheiner, co-founder of Otro Capital.

“We think Alpine is the perfect vehicle: a works team and iconic team, high performance built into it and the brand is just getting started.

“All of the things we’ve done in our career, all of the investments we’ve made, lend themselves to being able to help here. We built a company called Legends Hospitality at the Dallas Cowboys. We essentially outsourced food and beverage and sales sponsorships and ticket sales. We built a business for on-location experiences with the NFL. We took hospitality around Super Bowl to the next level. We’ve invested in a business with the players’ associations, where we built a licensing business around video games and trading cards. All of these experiences will lend themselves to success here.”

The investment values Alpine at just over €800m (£686m), bolstering a claim by McLaren boss Zak Brown in 2021 that F1 teams would soon be valued in the billions of dollars.

It will also give existing teams more ammunition in arguing that any new constructors joining the grid should be required to pay far more than the $200m (£157m) fee currently stipulated.

The announcement looks to confirm Alpine’s commitment to F1 after several years of doubt over whether it and the Renault Group were willing to continue in the sport.

David Gendry, Alpine’s vice president of communications and marketing, said that F1 was key to the company’s efforts to build a brand that’s bigger than the products it sells.

“Our goal is to create a sports franchise,” he said. “You need to create brands or a club that is bigger than your core product. Take Nike for example: when you buy a Nike, you don’t just buy a pair of shoes. You buy an emotion, you buy a story, you buy something that goes far beyond your core product. That’s exactly what we’re going to do with Alpine.”

So far Alpine’s growth appears to have largely come from France, helped by the decision to abandon the yellow livery of Renault and rebrand the team s Alpine. “It’s much more sensible business to paint the car in the blue of France and to become the national team of France in Formula 1,” said De Meo. “We’ve seen that already from the numbers.”

Bringing in North American investors indicates a greater focus on international growth, just as Alpine looks to start selling in more countries, including the US and China.

“As we look at the sport, we think it is incredibly well-run, the team is incredibly well-run,” said Scheiner. “But we do see a lot of upside. We can’t wait to get started.”

Who are Alpine’s new investors?

A group of investors have bought just under a quarter (24%) of the Alpine F1 team for €200m. They are made up of three investment firms: Maximum Effort Investments, led by Ryan Reynolds and joined by Rob McElhenney and Michael B Jordan, as well as Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners.

What will Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny do at Alpine?

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s individual roles at Alpine are undefined: unlike Wrexham AFC, they are only part of an investor group that owns 24% of the team. However, Alpine has said that it is looking to the investors to boost team revenue via improved sponsorship and hospitality, merchandising and licensing, so they will focus their attention in these areas.

The 24% share will give the investors a substantial share of any dividends, plus an interest in increasing the value of the team – and their own stake at the same time.