Former Aston Martin man looking to buy Alpine in bombshell move: Reports

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer is reportedly looking to buy Alpine in the future. The American joined the Silverstone-based outfit in 2009 and was part of their rise in the sport, which led them to finish best in the midfield on multiple occasions.

The 60-year-old also played a pivotal role in keeping the team afloat after it went into administration in the middle of 2018. He was key in Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll's investing and later buying the team to take its current guise, Aston Martin.

Szafnauer left Aston Martin at the end of the 2021 season to join Alpine as its team principal from 2022. He led the latter to a fourth-place finish in the Constructors' Championship ahead of his former team in the first year of the current set of regulations. However, he faced the axe from the French team ahead of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix after a reshuffle in the organization.

As reported by RacingNews365, Otmar Szafnauer and his group of North American investors are looking to buy Alpine or enter the grid as a 12th team. The American had already approached Luca de Meo, but the latter rebuffed the move after some consideration.

After De Meo's exit, the Renault Group has left Alpine without a senior figure to make decisions regarding a potential buyout. Szafnauer is waiting on De Meo's replacement to resume talks on a potential sale of the Enstone-based outfit, which will shut down its engine operations in Viry at the end of the year.

When Otmar Szafnauer spoke about the reason behind his Alpine exit

Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer previously stated that he was going to turn the French team into a top outfit before his exit from the team.

While appearing on the High Performance podcast last year, the former Aston Martin man said, via F1.com:

“I couldn’t have predicted the future. I had a contract, and I wanted to do the best I can for my team. I’m still working hard, I’m still delivering relative to today. We were sixth in that championship, but we had a couple of podiums. We’re scoring points regularly – it wasn’t a disaster. We’re in the midfield.

“Back then, yeah, it’s a half-step back, but sometimes you take a half-step back to take two steps forward. The recruitment was happening, good people were coming, I was going to turn that team into a top-three team, which is what we wanted to do."

Szafnauer was replaced by Bruno Famin as the team principal for a year before he was replaced by Oliver Oakes. The French team has failed to finish in the Top 3 of the Constructors' Championship since their return to the sport in 2016.