Alpine

How Ocon's Alpine exit could impact ANDRETTI F1 entry

Esteban Ocon's departure from the Alpine team could mean far more than just driver market chaos

Daniel Austin

Tuesday 4 June 2024 16:00

Another week begins and so does another tempest at the Alpine Formula 1 team. After a Monaco Grand Prix in which its drivers crashed into one another, and where the scoring of a solitary point was a bright spot in what has so far been a dismal 2024 season, the team has confirmed that Esteban Ocon will leave at the end of 2024 and has undergone yet another technical revamp in its latest round of management turmoil.

Rob White, the team’s director of operations since 2016, was sacked last week by team principal Bruno Famin in what the French squad referred to as a “wider operational restructure.”

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A team making changes both on and off track when it has dropped so far down the grid should probably come as no surprise. A Renault-owned outfit with the resources, reputation and experience of Alpine should quite simply be operating far higher up the field.

But this is far from the first time Alpine has wrought sweeping changes during a downturn.

Alpine team principal Bruno Famin recently lambasted Esteban Ocon for crashing into Pierre Gasly in Monaco

For a works outfit operated by an enormous manufacturer, that is a woeful record and the rearward slide is indicative of the atrocious management which has run the operation. Given a significant reason that the big brands race in F1 is for marketing, there is a strong argument that the shoddy way in which Alpine has been operated does more harm than good to the wider perception of both the brand itself and Renault.

When the team’s branding was changed from Renault to Alpine in 2021, it was billed as French national racing team, complete with tricolore livery and ultimately a fully French driver line-up. Now that duo has been compromised, and even the livery has been replaced with bright pink BWT sponsorship as cash has been prioritised over identity.

Since their return to the grid in 2016, Renault/Alpine have won just one race, and have gradually dropped further and further away from the frontrunners. As things stand, they are one of the slowest cars on the grid, have parted ways with Ocon, could lose Gasly upon the expiration of his contract at the end of the season, and seem very unlikely indeed to be competing for race wins in the years to come. Which all naturally begs the question – what is the point of continuing?

A sale at this point could make sense for Renault. Exiting rather than continuing to toil at the back of the field would stop any further reputational damage, bring in a heap of income, and allow them to be rid of the chaos which has engulfed the F1 team for swathes of the past decade.

With Andretti Autosport continuing with their preparations to enter F1, despite Formula One Management’s rejection of their bid to become the championship’s 11th team earlier this year, FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem recently said that purchasing an existing team could well be the American outfit’s best chance to join the grid.

But there are two key reasons why purchasing Alpine would be very difficult for any prospective buyer.

Alpine ran under parent company Renault's brand name until 2021

The first is that alongside Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull Powertrains, Renault is one of F1’s few engine manufacturers. That means the company brings added value to F1 in a way that racing teams who purchases power units and other components from different manufacturers simply do not. Renault has for years been preparing for the regulation change coming in 2026 which will revamp the series’ power units, and the idea of writing off the expense, energy and time put into that project would be very unpalatable indeed.

Furthermore, over the past few seasons the team has announced minority investments from celebrities and high-profile athletes including actor Ryan Reynolds, England footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold, four-time golf major winner Rory McIlroy and two-time former unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Any potential buyer would have to purchase shares belonging to each individual investor, including groups like RedBird Capital, which acquired a stake in the team last year to add to its investments in AC Milan and Liverpool FC.

While a sale may appeal, then, the practicality of completing one would likely be very tough.

What Ocon’s exit and the almost constant restructuring of the team do tell us, though, is that an F1 departure for an enormous automotive with a rich motorsport history cannot be ruled out.

Alpine Esteban Ocon Monaco Grand Prix Bruno Famin