Renault has quietly made a boardroom change at Alpine that, in any other week, might pass as routine corporate housekeeping. In the current climate around the Enstone team’s ownership, it reads more like a tell.
Duncan Minto, now Renault Group’s chief financial officer, has stepped off Alpine’s Formula 1 board and been replaced by Guillaume Rosso, Renault’s global head of mergers and acquisitions. Rosso formally took up the additional appointment on April 7. Philippe Krief, the Alpine CEO who joined the board in mid-2023, remains in place.
On paper, the swap is simple enough: Minto’s remit has changed since his promotion last March — he previously held the CFO role at Alpine — and Renault has slotted in another senior figure. But the specific profile of the incoming director is what sharpens the focus. Rosso isn’t a motorsport operator parachuted in to talk lap time or driver contracts. His background is venture investment, strategic governance and transaction work, and he also serves as managing director of Alliance Ventures, the corporate venture platform linked to the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi alliance.
That’s not the kind of CV you reach for if the priority is race-day decision-making. It is, however, exactly what you want on the inside when a minority shareholder is weighing up its exit options and the controlling owner wants the process run on its terms.
Renault remains the majority owner and retains control of the Enstone operation, with Alpine F1 operating as its own entity but historically featuring board representation from the wider group. That structure becomes more sensitive when minority equity is in play — particularly when the minority partner is an investment firm with its own timetable and return targets.
Otro Capital holds 24 per cent of Alpine, a stake it acquired in mid-2023 for roughly $215 million. In the inflated world of 2026 F1 asset values, that holding has become significantly more valuable: based on a $2.6 billion valuation for the team, it would imply a current value north of $620 million for Otro’s portion.
That’s the prize, and it’s why the conversations around this stake haven’t gone away. The terms of the original deal include a lock-up that prevents Otro from freely transferring its shares until September. Renault is also understood to have approval rights over any transaction — including who gets through the door as a prospective buyer.
Those two clauses matter. They effectively mean this isn’t a simple “for sale to the highest bidder” process, even if bidders are circling. Otro may want the cleanest route to the biggest number; Renault’s priorities are different. The group has to protect Alpine as both an F1 entrant and a wider marketing and investment asset — and it has no interest in allowing a minority shareholder to reshape the ownership base in a way that complicates governance or dilutes long-term strategy.
Rosso’s appointment lands right in the middle of that tension.
Flavio Briatore has already confirmed that Mercedes-Benz AG is among the parties to have expressed interest in buying Otro’s stake. The mooted offer is said to be worth $500 million, subject to finance, which would price the whole operation at around $2.1 billion. Other names have been linked as well, including American billionaire Steve Cohen. And Christian Horner — the former Red Bull team principal — has been connected to the story as he explores routes back into the paddock, with an ownership position understood to be part of what he’s chasing.
The interest list tells you two things. First, there’s real appetite for F1 equity now that teams are treated as growth assets as much as sporting organisations. Second, the identity of a buyer matters as much as the cheque. A strategic automotive player, a US financier, a high-profile paddock powerbroker — each comes with different incentives, different levels of involvement, and different complications for Renault.
That’s where Rosso’s presence looks significant. Renault isn’t sending a “sporting” signal here; it’s sending a control signal. If you’re preparing for a potential change in the minority cap table — whether that’s an orderly sale at the end of the lock-up, or a more creatively structured exit — you want the person who lives and breathes deal mechanics and governance frameworks sitting at the table. It’s the difference between reacting to proposals and shaping the parameters from the start.
There’s also a more human element that can’t be ignored: relationships. It’s understood that Otro’s relatively passive approach as a shareholder has caused some friction with Alpine, helping fuel the sense that an exit could come sooner than the originally implied “maturity” pathway. Passive money is fine when everything is calm. In F1, calm rarely lasts, and minority owners who don’t bring strategic value can quickly become a point of internal irritation — especially when their stake becomes a lever others want to pull.
None of this changes the fundamentals: Renault is still in charge. But it does underline that Alpine’s next chapter isn’t only being written in the wind tunnel or on the pit wall. It’s being written in meeting rooms, with term sheets, approval rights, and competing visions for what the team should be to its owners.
If Rosso’s appointment is a hint, it’s that Renault is bracing for a serious ownership conversation — and intends to run it with the same discipline as any major corporate transaction. In modern F1, that’s not a side story. It’s the story behind the story.
