‘Embarrassing’ F1 team respond to rumours they won’t be on the grid next year

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The struggling Alpine team have issued a response amid speculation that they won’t be part of the F1 grid in 2025. Alpine sit bottom of the constructors’ championship after four rounds as one of three teams yet to score a point.

They finished sixth in last year’s standings with 120 points as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon each scored a podium. However, they’ve fallen to the foot of the field this year and have yet to get off the mark alongside Sauber and Williams.

The French manufacturer, through Planet F1, have now addressed talk that they could sell up ahead of next year. Former team boss Eddie Jordan said last month that the ’embarrassing’ team was ‘wide open’ for a takeover.

• READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

He says Renault have already ‘pulled back’ from the operation and are reluctant to shell out the funds necessary to make their 2026 power unit competitive. On that basis, the team as we know it may not be competing in F1 next year.

‘Nasty’ rivals in the paddock are apparently mocking Alpine for claiming that their ‘100-race project’ would see them competing for regular podiums in 2024. And there’s apparently little confidence that they will deliver when the F1 regulations change in a couple of years.

What Alpine have said about F1 sale rumours

According to a team spokesperson, any suggestion that Alpine is up for sale is ‘categorically’ untrue. It appears they remain committed to working their way back up the field.

They said: “The rumours and stories about the team being for sale are false. The team is categorically not for sale.”

They may face a challenge to keep hold of Gasly and Ocon, both of whom have won Grands Prix in their careers. The French duo are out of contract at the end of the season and may seek opportunities elsewhere.

After all, with more than half of the 2024 grid approaching the end of their deals, there should be plenty of vacancies. There’s already a seat known to be available at Mercedes thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari move, but Red Bull and Aston Martin could yet have openings too.

Who is Alpine’s team principal?

There has been plenty of personnel change at Alpine recently, but the man currently at the helm is Bruno Famin. Famin was the vice-president of the Motorsports brand until the sacking of Otmar Szafnauer ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix last August, when he stepped into an interim team principal role.

Alpine then confirmed in February that Famin would take up the position on a permanent basis. But according to Ted Kravitz, he’ll already be coming under ‘immense pressure’.

Jordan has argued that it was a mistake to sack Szafnauer, but he’s far from the only high-profile figure to lose his job recently. Sporting director Alan Permane followed him out the door, only a month after the departure of CEO Laurent Rossi. Technical director Matt Harman and head aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer also moved on last month.

Alpine received investment last year from a host of A-list celebrities, including actor Ryan Reynolds, footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold and golfer Rory McIlroy. They will be demanding an awful lot more from a team that won two world championships in the noughties under the guise of Renault.