The Italian producer’s title sponsorship cope with the Sauber group got here to an finish finally weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, following a profitable six years collectively.
And whereas Alfa Romeo was linked with a attainable tie-up with Haas as a substitute, and did converse to the American-owned outfit, negotiations by no means acquired very far.
Now, Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato has defined to Motorsport.com that, along with his firm decided to stay in motorsport, a transfer to WEC is now the most probably route.
Requested in regards to the Haas state of affairs and why issues didn’t progress, Imparato mentioned: “We weren’t fascinated about aiming to do a duplicate/paste operation within the model of the one carried out with Sauber.
“It might have led us to change into a kind of who places stickers on bodywork. It might now not have been new and we would not have been a part of a narrative.
“We began taking a look at one thing else, shortly reaching a conclusion. Alfa Romeo has nothing to do with the world of rallying, the Stellantis group already has two manufacturers concerned in Components E, and so the main target has shifted to the WEC, a world wherein Alfa Romeo has lived previously fantastic experiences.”
Picture by: Martin W. Spetz
1974 Alfa Romeo 33-TT-12
Imparato has defined that no last choice has been made about how Alfa Romeo would make its step into WEC although, because it was at the moment evaluating probably the most cost-efficient manner of doing it.
“The WEC world is experiencing a second of nice curiosity, and when there may be loads of euphoria it turns into obscure what stage of funding is important to intention for the best objectives,” he mentioned.
“We noticed in 2015 [in LMP1] that uncontrolled price escalation finally rebounds, so we took a while to know how this may all play out.
“I consider it’s right to have a transparent image and know exactly what you might be going through earlier than launching right into a venture.”
One risk may very well be to tie-up with Peugeot, which is a part of the identical Stellantis group.
“Clearly it is one of many eventualities we evaluated,” added Imparato. “There are already homes inside the Stellantis group whose sports activities programmes are in shut contact, for instance DS and Maserati in Components E.
“After we return to the monitor we are going to achieve this with the help of Stellantis’ motorsport tasks, and as Peugeot is already current within the WEC clearly co-operation is greater than attainable. Then maybe the 2 tasks might have parallel paths in different facets, however in the long run we’re in the identical household.
“Nevertheless, I wish to make clear that for the time being we’re not but capable of affirm something. We’ll achieve this when we have now accomplished the planning and analysis of the funding.”
Picture by: Ferrari
Begin motion
Though Alfa Romeo’s F1 sponsorship with Sauber was compelled to finish early due to the group’s takeover by Audi, Imparato mentioned he had no regrets about their a few years collectively – as he mentioned the return on funding was unimaginable.
“I might say [it was] the perfect funding in historical past,” he mentioned. “We will say that when it comes to picture return, for each euro we spent we obtained 20 again.
“On the similar time, we’re slightly unhappy as a result of we’re leaving a group that has embraced our model for six years, and with which we have now had a rare relationship.”
