Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was very happy to announce how the Enstone-based team plan on spending the €200 million they’ve recently pocketed, following an investment from three Hollywood stars.
The French side announced on Monday that Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds, Michael B. Jordan and Rob McElhenney, had invested €200 million into the team.
The trio’s investment has come from RedBird Capital, Otro Capital and Maximum Effort Investments, which has reportedly increased Alpine’s value to €800 million.
Interestingly, the new investment isn’t going to be spent “on the sports side” of the team, who Rossi insists are simply “going to continue doing what they’re doing”.
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“They’re going to help us on the monetisation side of the business,” Rossi said during an address at Enstone, as reported by Motorsportweek.com.
“So strictly speaking not on the sports side. Obviously, people here [Enstone] know what they’re doing. People in Viry-Châtillon know what they’re doing. They’re going to continue doing what they’re doing.”
Rossi explained that the investment will be spent on the non-sporting side of Alpine, meaning the likes of “hospitality” will receive a boost.
“[The investment is] going to help us boost our revenue,” Rossi continued.
“Hospitality, sponsoring, licensing, merchandising. Above and beyond what we have planned.
“A portion of that we will reinvest into facilities, into tools, into equipment. This is part of a plan that we already launched way before RedBird joined us, which we call Mountain Climber.
“We are hiring 80 people. So we’re going to simply boost this plan, accelerate it even further, in the limitations of the cost cap obviously. So this is how it’s going to help us indirectly continue on our path.”
Rossi’s wording is certainly very different to how it was at the start of the season, where he publicly criticised the entire team.
Since his outburst Alpine have done exceptionally well, with Esteban Ocon having claimed a rostrum at Monaco, to secure the team’s first podium since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix.
Rossi certainly wasn’t speaking negatively about the team on Monday, where he insisted that the French side are “moving up”.
“The team is moving up,” Rossi added.
“Two years ago, we were a distant sixth really. We finished fourth this year. It’s a little bit complicated at the beginning of this season and it’s getting back into order, I hope we can just continue.
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“We have a roadmap. It’s progress that you build one step at a time because it takes time to find the people, find the resources to complement our team because our team is slightly smaller than top teams.
“So we’re just going to continue growing, expanding up to a point where we have similar structures.
“The way of doing makes a difference and we believe our way of doing will make a difference because we have expertise here.”