RYAN REYNOLDS and Rob McElhenney have got their work cut out with their latest sports venture – the Alpine F1 team.The Hollywood duo have shelled out to take Wrexham back into the Football League – but it will take more than dollars to sort out the mess at Alpine.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought a 24 per cent stake in AlpineCredit: Getty
Bruno Famin has taken interim charge of the F1 teamCredit: Splash
Reynolds and McElhenney are part of a consortium that has joined with Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners to take a 24 per cent share in the F1 team, which used to be known as Renault, for £170million.
But the Oxfordshire-based team, which is still owned by the Renault group, is in shambles after axing team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane – halfway through the Belgian GP.
Alpine replaced CEO Laurent Rossi earlier this month and experienced engineer Pat Fry has quit to join rivals Williams. That makes a total of FOUR key departures in around a week.
Szafnauer has been in charge for 18 months having previously been at Aston Martin, while Permane has served at the Enstone team for 34 years.
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Frenchman Bruno Famin will take the role of interim team principal but he was less than impressive in the press conference at Spa.
The problem is Alpine has an identity crisis. It is an English-based French team, with the car designed and built in Enstone and the engines manufactured just outside Paris.
Alpine, Renault’s performance car brand, is barely recognised outside of their own HQ – it is a failing project.
Former F1 champion Alain Prost ripped into Rossi, calling him “an inept manager who thinks he can overcome his incompetence with his arrogance and his lack of humanity towards his people”.
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Prost added: “I love this team, and I am saddened and distressed to see it in its current state.
“It deserves better and has everything it needs to succeed. I simply believe you need to rely on history to understand what went wrong.
“If you look at the great success stories from the last 30 years, you will see a simple structure — unlike an industrial organisation chart — built around three or four strong personalities, coupled with a winning driver.”
Alpine’s mentality is that they know best in their head offices at Renault HQ, and that goes against how most F1 teams are structured, with the large manufacturers allowing delegating power to their race team’s management structure.
As Szafnauer, who had been offered a 100-race plan to get Alpine back to regular winners, said Renault’s approach was all wrong.
He said: “You can’t get nine women pregnant and hope you have a baby in a month,” in a reference to a line said by US tycoon Warren Buffett about being forced to wait for success.
As it stands, the situation is total chaos with many staff now fearing for their jobs, plus I am not too sure how long Famin will remain in his current role.
I wonder just how much Reynolds and McElhenney realised about this mess before they invested.
MAX VERSTAPPEN’S domination of F1 is causing fans to switch off around the world.
TV viewers are down in several key markets following the Dutchman’s domination after he won his eighth race in a row.
I can only imagine how F1 chiefs are feeling as the Netflix Drive to Survive series edges closer to its shelf life.
MOTOGP has been dealt a blow after this Sunday’s British GP at Silverstone was pulled off ITV to make way for the Women’s World Cup and the Community Shield.
The race was due to be shown live on ITV but the broadcaster will now run a highlights show instead.
The MotoGP race at Silverstone will not be shown live on ITVCredit: AFP
It means that the race will only be shown live on the newly-rebranded TNT Sports (formerly BT Sports) and behind a £30-a-month paywall.
MotoGP viewing figures have tumbled since it was taken off free-to-air on the BBC when races regularly topped over a million viewers.
JAKE DENNIS won the Formula E title in London last weekend to become the series’ first British world champion.
However, the series needs to seriously regroup and come out firing for next season, for too much of the excellent racing is not being seen.
I have been a fan of the all-electric championship since the very first season in 2014 and can see the huge potential.
But until now, despite the talent, huge brands and manufacturers involved, it has failed to capture the attention of the wider public.
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The series has a new CEO in Jeff Dodds, who has a background working for Ford, Honda, Callaway Golf and Virgin Media.
And he must start turning it into a wider spectacle for the sake of the championship’s future. More
