17/10/2023
NEWS STORY
David Dicker, the man behind Rodin Cars, whose F1 entry has been rejected by the FIA, scoffs at $1bn price tag on teams like AlphaTauri.
His bid rejected, Dicker, who acquired a majority stake in Carlin earlier this year, is still looking to enter the sport, but baulked at the asking prices currently being bandied around.
"Well, I did have some talks about buying AlphaTauri, but the price is commercially unviable as far as I could understand it," he tells Racer.
"You've still got to look at these things in commercial terms," he adds. "The F1 guys are experts on the motorsport side, but on the business side, I'm not so sure.
"I've had a few people talk about this and that, but nothing tremendously concrete. I do have a couple of things that I might get a bit more info on in the next week or two about some possibilities, but the value proposition is weak."
"I would buy a team if I thought there was a viable route," he admits, "but paying $800 - $900 million would probably not be considered commercially viable. But you know, just got to see if there's possibilities.
"I made a mistake when Williams was for sale because I could have bought that pretty easily," he reveals. "I didn't read the strategic landscape correctly on that with the way we made the bid, which in hindsight, was obviously a mistake. But there it goes.
"I had a lot of talks with Williams about buying Williams, saw all the numbers and sat through presentations and made them an offer and everything, and I've had a few guys talking about other teams from time to time. Mostly Sauber and Haas, which have more or less been on and off the market for years, and could have probably been bought for much lower numbers that made a lot more sense. Like I said, I probably screwed that up."
With the teams sticking to their guns, determined to profit from the valuations the sport's owners have placed on them, even though widely disputed, though disappointed at his bid to enter F1, Dicker hasn't given up entirely.
"I do have a project that I'm working on," he says. "It's interesting and exciting, but I can't talk about it quite yet, because I haven't quite got it. But let me put it this way, I'm pretty pissed off about not getting into Formula 1, so I'm not just going to go away and sulk.
"That's just the way I am. I mean, you want to do things, and that's what life's about. You just try to do them. And if you can't do it one way, then look for another way, or other ways, of doing things."