The Formula One season is only one-fourth of the way through, but a second driver has already been demoted—at least temporarily.
Alpine announced Tuesday that it would replace rookie driver Jack Doohan, who had yet to score through six races, with Franco Colapinto for at least the next five Grands Prix. The team said that after the five races, it would implement a rotation for its second driver seat beside veteran Pierre Gasly.
Colapinto scored five points over nine races with Williams last season after he replaced Logan Sargeant. The announcement comes less than two months after Red Bull swapped in Yuki Tsunoda for Liam Lawson, who is now with its sister team Racing Bulls.
The move also came on the same day as the resignation of team principal Oliver Oakes. Alpine announced that Flavio Briatore, its controversial executive advisor, will be “covering the duties” of Oakes. Briatore had received a lifetime ban from F1 in 2009 for his involvement in a race fixing scandal, but his ban was removed a year later. This allowed him to return to F1 with Alpine last year.
Alpine has struggled in the constructors’ championship this year, ranking 9th out of 10 teams, just one point ahead of last-place Kick Sauber.
Long-Term Investment
In F1, constructors are paid with prize money every year based on results from the previous season. The prize pool is a portion of the league’s revenue each year, with the top prize estimated to be around $140 million and the delta between each position around $10 million.
Last year, Alpine finished sixth for the second consecutive season, meaning a drop to ninth this year would cost about $30 million on top of any performance-related incentives from corporate partners. It’s a concerning decline for Alpine, especially considering the team looked poised to break through the midfield after finishing fourth in 2022.
Less than two years ago, Alpine, whose principal owner is French automotive company Renault, sold a 24% stake in the team worth around $210 million to an investment group led by Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners. Celebrities Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Michael B. Jordan were included in the investment.
Months later, it was announced that several star athletes were added to the investor list: NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, golfer Rory McIlroy, boxing great Anthony Joshua, and newly crowned EPL champion Trent Alexander-Arnold.
While Alpine’s poor performance could be costly, the high-profile investments may still bear fruit should the sport continue to grow worldwide. F1 is also instituting major regulation changes next year that could bridge the gap between the 10 constructors and give Alpine a chance to get out of the cellar.
Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the majority owner of Front Office Sports.
