– Mercedes no longer pursues a stake in the Alpine F1 team after failing to agree on the price demanded by Otro Capital. Mercedes, which already supplies Alpine with engines and gearboxes, was interested in acquiring the 24 percent stake from Otro Capital and had basically agreed on a purchase with majority shareholder Renault.
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As first reported by the BBC and confirmed by Motorsport-Total.com, this deal has now fallen through. It is said that Otro Capital’s price expectation of 720 million dollars, which values the team at a total of 3 billion dollars, is significantly above Alpine’s valuation by Mercedes and thus above what is considered a sensible investment.
Mercedes declined to comment on the matter, while Alpine was asked for a statement.
Otro had only acquired the Alpine shares in June 2023 for 233 million dollars. Majority shareholder Renault is said to have a veto right on the sale of Otro’s shares until September. A consortium around former Red Bull Formula 1 team principal Christian Horner is among the other interested parties.
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Photo gallery: Formula 1 teams with at least five wins at the start of the season
Last week, Alpine announced a groundbreaking partnership with luxury group Gucci as the team’s title sponsor. The Enstone-based team is set to compete under the name Gucci Racing Alpine from 2027. Gucci will replace the Austrian water technology company BWT as title sponsor and will also take over the vehicle design.
Former Alpine CEO Luca de Meo, who now leads Gucci’s parent company Kering, played a key role in closing the deal together with team advisor Flavio Briatore.
After Alpine finished the 2025 Formula 1 season in tenth and last place in the championship, they have started significantly better this year. After the first five race weekends of 2026, the French team is in fifth place in the championship and thus “Best of the Rest” behind the four top teams.
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