08/08/2023
NEWS STORY
Helmut Marko believes that Andretti would be best served by buying out the troubled Alpine team.
The Austrian's comment comes at a time the French outfit is in turmoil, having sacked its team principal and sporting director over the Spa weekend and lost its technical director to Williams, while Bruno Famin, who was appointed VP, Alpine Motorsports and member of Alpine Management Committee early last month, is left to pick up the pieces.
As the team slumps to sixth in the standings, the so-called 5-year plan is in tatters, the Enstone-based outfit a shadow of its former self.
"Andretti should buy the Alpine team," Helmut Marko tells Sport1.de. "That would be best served for everyone. Formula 1 would keep its ten teams, Andretti could finally get in and Renault would still be involved."
Despite its partnership with Cadillac, Andretti already has an agreement in place with Renault should it secure an entry, however should it pull the plug on Alpine might the French manufacturer close down its entire F1 operation, after all it only currently supplies engines to one team, itself.
And while Andretti sought to buy Sauber would it want to buy Alpine, especially considering the fact that the French outfit is the latest incarnation of what began as Toleman back in the mid-80 before becoming Benetton.
Then, there are the reports that Alpine has already agreed a deal which will see former Ferrari boss, Mattia Binotto joining, possibly as early as September.
Buying Alpine would certainly get around the resistance to Andretti from F1 and the majority of the teams, indeed, along with McLaren, Alpine was the only outfit willing to allow the Americans to enter the sport.
While the FIA mulls the various proposals from would-be entrants, as recently as last week F1 bosses were playing down the need for new teams.
"Formula 1 has 10 great teams, we're very excited about what they're doing," said Liberty Media CEO, Greg Maffei in an investor call on Friday. "There's a process to add more teams but the bar is very high, and it's unclear what value and 11th team would add, and there's a lot of uncertainty from the other teams about adding an 11th team.
"The FIA and we have had productive discussions about all this," he added, "do we agree on everything at the moment? No, we discuss things and hopefully work things out."
"The FIA started a process, as is in their possibility, we are waiting for the final conclusion," said F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali. "As always, in these discussions, we'll find an agreement together because the value of the teams and the value of the business today is very, very strong.
"That decision, that information, will come very, very soon, I would say within the month of September."
Meanwhile, another problem facing Alpine as it seeks to move forward is the little matter of engine equalisation, Toto Wolff having warned that if the French manufacturer gets its way it would be a catastrophe for the sport.
Marko doesn't agree.
"We were not against it when it came to the Renault case," said the Austrian. "But it must be clearly demonstrated that the performance gap is significant. And it must be ensured that measures are taken that do not weaken the rest of us.
"The application has therefore been put on hold at the moment," he added. "I can understand Alpine's problems. It's not just about engine performance. If you are too far behind in performance, you will have to make compromises with the car set-up to compensate for the lack of speed on the straights, which can amount to a loss of up to three-tenths. And that comes at the expense of the driving characteristics of the car."