Toto Wolff and Mercedes have pulled out of talks to buy a 24% stake in Alpine, ending a deal that would have reshaped the ownership of the Formula 1 team. The withdrawal came after the price demanded for the shares was judged too high.
The stake is owned by Otro Capital, which paid £171m for it in June 2023. Reports said the asking price had climbed to $720m, a figure that would value Alpine at $3bn and put the prospective sale among the most expensive minority-team deals in the sport.
Flavio Briatore, who spoke about the collapse of the discussions, said the failure had nothing to do with Alpine itself and instead sat with the Renault Group. He said the talks ended three days earlier and described Wolff as fair in negotiations, even as he said the price was too high. Briatore also said the problem was with Renault rather than the team.
That leaves the ownership question where it was before the latest round of talks, with Renault and Otro still needing to reach a solution that both sides can accept. Briatore said whatever Renault settles on, he is happy to live with it, but whatever Otro agrees to needs Renault’s blessing. He also said there are negotiations involving different teams and different people, including Christian, though he said he did not know whether Christian Horner is actually part of the group interested in buying Otro.
For Briatore, the split between the team and the deal is the key point. He said he would be happy to work with anybody and had zero problems with Christian, but the broader structure around Alpine remains unresolved, with the final say still resting on whether Renault can line up a sale that its partners will accept.
