Wolff-Alpine, Horner has nothing to do with it: “It would be sad if I decided on an investment based on this”

All about Alpine In recent weeks there has been a lot of talk within the F1 paddock about the now ‘famous’ shares of the Otro Capital investment fund within the Alpine team. The private equity firm, which is based in New York, controls 24% of the Enstone stable but appears particularly interested in selling its shares. Among the possible interested buyers, in addition to the entrepreneur Steve Cohen (owner of baseball’s New York Mets), Christian Horner has emerged – looking for a return to the Circus in style after being shown the door by Red Bull – and Toto Wolff, who in his role as executive director of Mercedes in Formula 1 would like to be able to control shares of the team which from this year is powered by the Brixworth power unit. Business is business The fact that interest in purchasing this 24% emerged first for Horner than for Mercedes made many think that Wolff was moving above all to prevent his historic rival from having a privileged access route to returning to F1. In a recent interview given to the Press Association, however, Wolff denied this reconstruction, claiming that this operation is completely disconnected from the personal relationship that unites – or rather, it would be better to say divides – him and Horner. “Our interest in that share has nothing to do with Christian – said Wolff – the idea that there is a rivalry between me and Christian over who buys a share of Alpine is invented. It would be rather sad if this were a determining factor in deciding whether or not to make such an investment. We are evaluating the issue from different angles and have not reached any conclusions. We want to understand if it makes sense”. During his F1 career it is worth remembering that Wolff has already held shareholdings in other teams besides Mercedes, such as Williams and Aston Martin.