Why Ryan Reynolds and Alpine show that F1’s boom will outlast Drive to Survive

It was all a bit ham-fisted when Alpine launched the ‘Fernando Alonso’ edition of its A110 road car during the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix weekend. The manufacturer was celebrating a driver who had just made management look foolish by breaking away from contract talks to sign for rival Aston Martin. And because the company had to rush the unveil before Alonso started dressing in British Racing Green, only Suzuka would do since Alpine doesn’t sell cars in Central America and the following Formula 1 races were set for the United States, Mexico and Brazil.

Here was a snapshot of a niche Renault Group sportscar sub-brand whose marketing campaign was poorly executed and who carried little global recognition beyond its 1970s World Rally Championship success and grand prix team. But wind on 10 months and the F1 chassis operation alone can now boast a value of a staggering £717million (minus the Viry engine site) after a 24% stake was sold to a consortium for £172m.

The well-heeled investors comprise Hollywood actors and Wrexham Football Club owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney plus equity firms Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners. Alpine hasn’t shied away one bit from what it expects to get out of this transaction. While the money might well contribute to its new simulator, it values the expertise of its new business associates. It wants to boost its foothold in “media, sponsorship, ticketing, hospitality, commercial rights management, licencing, and merchandising strategies to unlock incremental value creation and new growth levers”.

In other words, selling a quarter of the race team isn’t a sign that the Renault Group is getting cold feet over its longer-term F1 future as some have suggested. Instead, more in a show of commitment, it wants to capitalise on F1’s popularity boom and milk that for all its worth to make the squad as financially lucrative as possible rather than force a quick sale.

The chosen way to do this is by tapping into the profile of ‘Deadpool’ star Reynolds and ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ actor McElhenney. Set aside how they facilitated Wrexham FC returning to the football league by spending big on wages and by signing an out-of-contract Premier League goalkeeper. They won’t be using their fame to recruit Adrian Newey to Enstone any time soon. It is more how they brought social media platform TikTok onboard as the main kit sponsor for a fifth-tier club and have propelled the Welsh town to global stardom via the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ TV series.

Under the less controlling ownership of Liberty Media, something similar can be shot around F1: a warts-and-all, underdog success, fly-on-the-wall documentary series based on Alpine. And from the moment that Reynolds and McElhenney were listed as part-investors in the Alpine venture, the announcement of such a production is widely expected to come as a formality.

A behind-the-scenes documentary focused on Alpine, in the style of 'Welcome to Wrexham' is widely expected

Photo by: Alpine

There have now been five seasons of ‘Drive to Survive’ on Netflix. Since pandemic-enforced lockdowns have passed to mean people have something other to do than binge-watch shows, and with audiences increasingly irked by the poetic licence the series continues to take, it’s probable that more series of DTS have aired than there are left to come.

As a camera crew follows Lewis Hamilton in and out of the F1 paddock for his forthcoming behind-the-scenes Apple TV documentary and now that principal photography is due to begin on the F1-based blockbuster starring Brad Pitt, the question is ‘what comes next?’. If F1 is like an addict high on popularity, what will provide the next fix to ensure the viewership keeps growing? Perhaps Reynolds and McElhenney can provide part of the answer to sustain the boom.

This is where the nature of the Alpine investors should be noted. This is not another Lawrence Stroll-style takeover where one person hogs the limelight and might be accused of running a vanity project. Nor has the money come from a state-owned sovereign wealth fund where blank cheques can be written without a care.

It can be supposed that Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners only gave the greenlight to the Alpine investment because their expertly compiled forecasts predict they will make their money back. And some.

Instead, Alpine is now in bed with true private investment companies who are trusted by prudent members to have their cash spent shrewdly and expect to see a profit in return. For instance, RedBird Capital Partners is an investor in Fenway Sports Group which owns Premier League side Liverpool. Part of the reason the football club’s manager Jurgen Klopp has garnered so much praise is because he has enabled Liverpool to relentlessly chase after Manchester City without necessarily matching the spending of the Sheikh-owned Sky Blues. Liverpool has proved more reserved in the transfer market because, Financial Fair Play regulations aside, there are limits imposed on what can be spent so that FSC can fulfil the so-called ‘Return on Investment’.

With that degree of pragmatism, it can be supposed that Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners only gave the green light to the Alpine investment because their expertly compiled forecasts predict they will make their money back. And some. They haven’t come into F1 because they like fast cars going around in circles or are desperate to become friends with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. It’s instead down to the calculated gamble that they’ll be quids-in several years down the line.

All of that faith might spell good news for Liberty and Audi. The former can expect F1 to continue to bring in big audiences. The latter might hope that the championship is still riding the crest of a wave when it finally enters in 2026. At that point, it will join Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Aston Martin plus Honda and Alpine as road car constructors that are properly represented on the grid. Not all of them will be able to win, so it won’t be long before boardrooms begin to get itchy feet when they need to save £140m and consider pulling the plug.

But the confidence in F1’s future that Alpine’s new investors appear to possess suggests that the championship can, for years to come, and beyond Netflix, continue to offer enough to make those management decisions that much harder to justify.

The scope of the investment and the motivations of those involved are a show of confidence in F1's boom

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images