Alpine could be open to supporting Andretti in F1 if needed

Alpine could be willing to provide power units and support to Andretti if it is successful in gaining an entry into Formula 1, according to CEO Laurent Rossi.

Andretti’s attempts to join F1 were made public at the weekend when Mario Andretti tweeted about his son Michael’s plans to create a team under the title of Andretti Global, which aims to be on the grid in 2024. While Andretti has yet to reveal details of any potential technical partners, Rossi says he is open to supplying a new team in future as long as Alpine is structured correctly.

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“Yes, we are always happy to have new teams in the sport,” Rossi told select media including RACER. “It’s good for the sport, it might be good for us. We’ll see.

“If they ask us and we are geared and structured this way, perhaps we would be open (to helping Andretti). For now, it’s impossible. I wanted to focus the team on itself to improve the performance. It was good enough last year but it was not great, let’s be honest – that’s my role to be lucid about that. Let’s make sure that the team is growing and getting where it needs to be, because it's a distraction in a way if you’re not equipped for us. It could cost us a lot if you’re not ready for it.”

The structure at Alpine has changed recently with the arrival of Otmar Szafnauer as team principal, which Rossi says was important to improve the team’s chances of fighting for championships.

“Last year we split responsibilities between three people because that was the optimum way of doing it to replace the team principal that had left," he said. "But is that the most efficient, is that what will help us become best of the best instead of best of the rest? I didn’t think so.

“And so I figured we needs someone who is the common point between Enstone and the track, and enabling Pat Fry, Matt Harman, Bruno Famin to work together while optimizing for cost cap, that’s a team principal I think Otmar is bringing indisputable qualities to the table and will probably help us to raise our game by a level or more.”