Flavio Briatore has moved quickly to pour cold water on the more eye-catching version of the story doing the rounds in Shanghai: that Toto Wolff is personally circling Alpine.
Yes, a sale is in play — but Briatore insists the conversations are happening at manufacturer level, not via the Mercedes boss acting as an individual suitor.
“Every day it’s a new situation,” Briatore said during Friday’s team principals’ press conference. “But what I want to say, I know it’s a negotiation from Mercedes, not with Toto, with Mercedes, and we see.
“At this moment, we have three or four potential buyers. Not to forget, we’re talking about the Otro share, nothing to do with Alpine. It’s the share of Otro, to sell the 24 percent and there are a few candidates ready to do the deal.”
The 24 per cent stake in question is held by Otro Capital, the American investment group that bought into Alpine three years ago for €200 million. Its investor roster includes Ryan Reynolds and Rory McIlroy, and it’s now looking to cash out — a process that has inevitably attracted attention in a paddock where the line between rivals on-track and partners off it gets blurrier by the year.
Multiple parties are understood to be interested, with two familiar names among them. Wolff, who owns a significant stake in the Mercedes F1 team and has recently sold a small portion of that holding, is reported to be among the bidders. Christian Horner is also thought to be part of the queue, with the former Red Bull team boss having made little secret of his appetite for a return, talking publicly about “unfinished business” in Formula 1.
That’s the sort of subplot F1 can’t resist: two of the sport’s most recognisable power-brokers, linked — however loosely — to a stake in a rival team. Briatore’s framing, though, is telling. He’s not just distancing Alpine from the individuals; he’s narrowing the discussion to what it actually is in corporate terms: an existing shareholder choosing to sell, with Alpine itself not formally “on the market”.
It also speaks to how Alpine wants this to look externally. A manufacturer-to-manufacturer dialogue is neat. A headline about Wolff buying into a team that has just become a Mercedes customer, less so.
Because that’s the other piece of context sitting behind the noise: Alpine has switched to Mercedes power for 2026 after scrapping its Renault engine programme, and it’s also using Mercedes gearboxes. Whatever the legal shape of any investment, optics matter — and in F1, optics become politics fast.
Briatore was also asked if he’d be tempted to buy the Otro stake himself. The answer was unequivocal.
“No, no, no,” he said. “Just looking what’s going on, and just watching what’s going on.
“We have no communication with Toto at this moment. So if somebody buys the shares, we are very happy.”
Mercedes, for its part, didn’t bite on specifics when approached about the reported bid. A spokesperson simply underlined the existing relationship.
“Mercedes is a key strategic partner of Alpine, and we are being kept apprised of the latest developments,” they said.
Alpine’s own line was similarly non-committal — and carefully worded to keep the team at arm’s length from the process.
“The team is regularly approached and contacted by multiple parties and potential investors,” an Alpine spokesperson said. “We do not comment on any specific names or individuals in question. Any discussions are not a matter for the team; they’re between the current stakeholders and parties expressing an interest.
“The primary focus for the team is the immediate task at hand, which is the start of the racing season and seeing a sustained recovery of performance on track.”
That last sentence is the key. Whatever theatre swirls around a stake sale, it doesn’t put lap time on the car. Alpine has started this new era as a customer outfit in power unit terms, and the to-do list is obvious: stabilise performance, build momentum, and make sure the off-track narrative doesn’t become the loudest thing about the team.
Still, don’t expect the speculation to fade any time soon. The moment you have “three or four” buyers for a significant chunk of a works-branded F1 team — and you sprinkle in names like Wolff and Horner — the paddock will do what it always does: talk, triangulate, and read between every line of every press-conference answer.
Briatore has drawn his line for now. The next question is whether the rest of the grid respects it.
