Motor racing: Alpine will supply Andretti with F1 engines if win approval

LONDON – Alpine will supply the engines if Andretti Cadillac win their battle to become Formula One’s 11th team, the Renault-owned sportscarmaker’s chief executive Laurent Rossi said on Thursday.

The governing FIA this month formally started a process that could lead to new entrants from 2025.

Andretti Global and General Motors announced in January they planned to compete with a new all-American team using the Cadillac brand and employing at least one United States driver.

“We agreed that if they get their licence to run in Formula One, then we will provide them with a powertrain,” Rossi told Reuters at the launch in London of Alpine’s A523 Formula One car.

“But it’s up to them to show that they can join the Formula One circus and for that they need to go through the hoops, the process in place where they submit applications and they show that they bring value to the F1 circus and teams in general.

“It’s for them to prove it and for the others to assess. If they join, we’ll be happy to join them. If they don’t it means that all in all it didn’t work out.”

Alpine, fourth in the constructors’ championship last season, currently supply only their own team, and Rossi said the carmaker did not need a second.

“It’s a nice to have, it’s not a must have,” he explained.

“We could use a second team because you accumulate more data across four cars than you do with two. But it’s a drag on your team as well, so you need to be completely well structured. We couldn’t that two years ago.”

Mercedes currently supply four of the teams, Ferrari three.

Other Formula One teams have been lukewarm towards expanding the grid, wary of diluting the overall pot of revenues.

Some also feel the current US$200 million (S$268 million) entry fee, which would be shared among the existing 10 teams as compensation, is not enough.

Andretti labelling team owners as “greedy” did not sit well either.

While FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been supportive, Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali has sounded much less so.

“Michael Andretti is very vocal about joining F1. In my view it was not smart to say that the teams were ‘too greedy’ and protecting themselves,” Domenicali told Sky Sports television recently.

The deadline for submission of formal applications to the FIA is the end of April with any decision by June 30.

Surprise signing

Renault-owned Alpine set out their goals for the season on Thursday before unveiling French soccer great Zinedine Zidane as a surprise signing.

The World Cup winner and former Real Madrid coach was introduced at the launch of the new A523 car as a global ambassador for the brand and to help promote equal opportunities.

“I am very happy to be here today and happy to be part of the Alpine team,” Zidane told the surprised audience in a former newspaper printing site in London’s Docklands.

French driver Pierre Gasly, another new signing as teammate to established compatriot Esteban Ocon, races with the No. 10 and had to admit he was only the best non-retired No. 10 in the building.

“He’s been one of my idols since I was a kid,” he told reporters. “I started playing football at five and just wanted to wear No. 10, his jersey, every time I was going to practice and training.

“Just to see him as an ambassador today and go to spend some time backstage before the event, I just attacked him with millions of questions about his career.”

Britain’s double Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams was also appointed as a mentor to coach young drivers and raise awareness of diversity.

Ocon and Gasly, who replaces departed double world champion Fernando Alonso, were given a clear target – defending fourth place overall as a bare minimum and closing the huge gap to champions Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Alpine managed to secure fourth overall in 2022 after a season-long battle with McLaren, but the 342-point gap between them and third-placed Mercedes left no illusions.

“The gap to third was big and we’ve got to close that gap,” said team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

“In order to so, we must develop at a higher rate than any other Formula One team out there... and that’s what we’re looking to do.”

Renault chief executive officer Luca de Meo said the French carmaker’s commitment was long-term and he was optimistic about a trajectory that has seen the team move from fifth in 2021 to fourth in 2022.

“Maybe Esteban and Pierre can give us a couple of podiums,” he added. REUTERS