Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff is considering purchasing shares in Alpine.
Currently Otro Capital holds a 24% share of Alpine F1 team. However, the owners have put these shares up for sale, and they have confirmed Wolff as a potential buyer.
This has led to conversations surrounding the implications of Wolff holding shares in both Mercedes and Alpine.
During a press conference at the Canadian GP, Andrea Stella, Alan Permane and Laurent Mekies were all asked their opinions on the deal.
Andrea Stella on Mercedes Alpine buy-in
Reports suggest that Zak Brown sent a letter to Ben Sulayem opposing Mercedes’ purchase of Alpine F1 Team. He believes that it may lead to an unfair advantage, with teams not operating individually. Team principal Andrea Stella agrees with Brown, stating that it is the view of the entire McLaren team.
“What Zak has expressed, representing the opinion and the position of McLaren, is part of a process that we wanted to be constructive and healthy, but also very clear. Very clear on a principle that I would really be curious to see if any of the stakeholders in Formula 1 disagrees with, and the fact that this is a championship between independent constructors. We believe very strongly that this principle should be enforced totally.
“And the reason why we want this principle and this point to be discussed is because we think, from a practical point of view, there’s more that we should do. We are happy with how this is being received. I think, like I said before, there’s some philosophical agreement by basically all the stakeholders.
“It’s now the time for the F1 community to think about how do we implement it fully, such that the fairness in the game and in the competition is fully achieved, and also, the true extent of the technical, sporting and financial regulations is also brought to life.”
Alan Permane on possible Mercedes and Alpine buy-in
Although Racing Bulls operate as an individual team, many people widely recognise them as the sister team to Red Bull Racing. There are benefits to this, however, Alan Permane states that there is no competitive advantage to the partnership.
“Yeah, I would say, do we feel the benefit? I certainly feel the benefit of being part of the Red Bull family and coming under Austria, Red Bull corporate projects group. Our relationship with Red Bull Racing is very much a customer-supplier relationship. We take some suspension from them, we take gearbox from them, and various other components that are allowed under the technical regulations, which we follow very rigorously.
“And actually, I have to say, having worked at a team where we don’t have that relationship at all and now a team where we do have it, a lot of work goes into ensuring that we are respecting those rules. So, a lot of effort that could be put into other areas, a lot of effort is put into ensuring that we respect those regulations. So, I don’t see any issue with the way we operate currently.”
Laurent Mekies want teams to race independently
Laurent Mekies doesn’t believe that Mercedes’ purchasing Alpine will have an impact on teams working independently. He believes that there have been improvements in ensuring independence in recent years.
“We all want 11 teams racing independently on track, and we have made many steps as a sport in recent weeks, in recent months, in recent years, to try to ensure more and more independence from every team racing on track. If any stakeholders, let it be another team or anyone else, would feel that more steps are needed to ensure 11 teams racing independently, we would support. We don’t think it’s a matter of core ownerships or strategic supply.
“We think there are very many different ways in which teams are collaborating in the pit lane. As I said, power unit supply, gearbox supply, suspension supply, partial ownerships, full ownerships. We‘re completely supportive to take any further step to ensure that regardless of our strategic partnership or regardless of our ownership structure, that we race independently on track. We feel that is the case today. We will regardless completely encourage any further steps that we feel is needed as a sport.”
