Why doesn't anyone want to drive for Alpine?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Skam85

And yet Hulkenberg is older, has achieved far less, spent more time out of F1 than in in recent years, but seems to be the preferred option at Haas.

I think that comes down to the relationship that Hülkenberg has with Steiner and has demonstrated his adaptability when coming in as a substitute driver.

[peebee2]

The stories about DR and Haas have certainly cooled, even if their new Aussie-founded title sponsor has also yet to be publicly announced.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by peebee2

even if their new Aussie-founded title sponsor has also yet to be publicly announced.

Do you have details on this sponsor that you can share here?

Joe Saward was reporting something different a few days ago:

"I also hear that there is a massive title sponsorship deal coming soon for Haas from a big American corporation, which will fund the team for at least the next three seasons and perhaps beyond that. One can only guess who this will be, but I don’t believe it is an OEM."

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Do you have details on this sponsor that you can share here?

Joe Saward was reporting something different a few days ago:

"I also hear that there is a massive title sponsorship deal coming soon for Haas from a big American corporation, which will fund the team for at least the next three seasons and perhaps beyond that. One can only guess who this will be, but I don’t believe it is an OEM."

I can’t, but it’s the same deal. Australian founded, now big in the US.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by peebee2

I can’t, but it’s the same deal. Australian founded, now big in the US.

So if I am understanding your posts:

The deal is done.
The title sponsor is a company that was founded in Australia.
The title sponsor is now recognised as being an American corporation.
It is a 3-year plus deal.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

So if I am understanding your posts:

The deal is done.
The title sponsor is a company that was founded in Australia.
The title sponsor is now recognised as being an American corporation.
It is a 3-year plus deal.

I didn't say 3 years but quite possibly.

The Australian part was really only relevant as to the possible interest in Ricciardo. But, who knows, maybe we can add Haas to the list of teams not interested in him. Or it's a smokescreen and they signed him up at Spa.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by peebee2

I didn't say 3 years but quite possibly.

The Australian part was really only relevant as to the possible interest in Ricciardo. But, who knows, maybe we can add Haas to the list of teams not interested in him. Or it's a smokescreen and they signed him up at Spa.

Apologies - not intending to put words in your mouth. The 3 years came from Joe Saward and I took your confirmation as being the same deal to also include the 3 year part.

Out of interest - if the sponsor is recognised as being an American corporation - would many make the jump to the Australian origins of the sponsor?

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Apologies - not intending to put words in your mouth. The 3 years came from Joe Saward and I took your confirmation as being the same deal to also include the 3 year part.

Out of interest - if the sponsor is recognised as being an American corporation - would many make the jump to the Australian origins of the sponsor?

I’m sure people who look at detail would notice. You would notice.

The reason for the link coming up was Guenther meeting DR to talk about a potential drive pre-Spa.

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Apologies - not intending to put words in your mouth. The 3 years came from Joe Saward and I took your confirmation as being the same deal to also include the 3 year part.

Out of interest - if the sponsor is recognised as being an American corporation - would many make the jump to the Australian origins of the sponsor?

So might that deal be announced at COTA? I would have thought that one factor that shines out from the last year or two is that a driver linked to sponsorship isn't necessarily a good thing,the names Latifi and Mazepin were closely tied to sponsors but points were a bit scarce.There were and are others but Alpine seem quite well supported without resorting to such measures.They are vying with McLaren in the tables so ought to be a reasonable destination for a driver without links to other teams and perhaps this is the downfall of the various academy programmes.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by P38 in workshop

So might that deal be announced at COTA? I would have thought that one factor that shines out from the last year or two is that a driver linked to sponsorship isn't necessarily a good thing,the names Latifi and Mazepin were closely tied to sponsors but points were a bit scarce.There were and are others but Alpine seem quite well supported without resorting to such measures.They are vying with McLaren in the tables so ought to be a reasonable destination for a driver without links to other teams and perhaps this is the downfall of the various academy programmes.

Good points but there’s a difference between the likes of Alonso bringing Spanish sponsors, and other drivers’ Dads just paying for their rides through their companies for tax reasons.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Good points but there’s a difference between the likes of Alonso bringing Spanish sponsors, and other drivers’ Dads just paying for their rides through their companies for tax reasons.

Is there are genuine link between DR and the American corporation potentially sponsoring Haas - or is it just a coincidence that DR and the origin of this corporation are both Australian?

e.g. - does the same link exist between 1&1 and having a German driver?

[bathurst77]

As an Aussie there ae very few Aussie started companies that are now US based and that cashed-up and would suit f1 to the extent that Naming Rights would cost.

Rupert Murdoch's News.com/FOX companies network is the only one that easily comes to mind. And fox/news has TV networks (at least pay) in most of the world now

Is F1 on Fox pay tv in USA? ITs on Foxtel (Fox) in Australia and Sky which shows F1 in UK are Murdoch owned. I think the skyf1 and coverage (Which Australia takes Would become "the HAAS program" next year?

Given USA is a market f1 are desperate to grow rapidly in, and HAAS want to be "The American team" (which was hard with Russian signage and naming rights) there could be something in Fox/news getting into f1 with HAAS "Team America"

[bathurst77]

But this is an Alpine thread..
The discussion of HAAS should be in silly season or its own thread

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Is there are genuine link between DR and the American corporation potentially sponsoring Haas - or is it just a coincidence that DR and the origin of this corporation are both Australian?

I don't think so. It was just noted as coincidental that the sponsor deal was finalised the same time that DR became availaible and met with Guenther.

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

does the same link exist between 1&1 and having a German driver?

Undoubtedly, initially at least.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Rupert Murdoch's News.com/FOX companies network is the only one that easily comes to mind. And fox/news has TV networks (at least pay) in most of the world now

Is F1 on Fox pay tv in USA? ITs on Foxtel (Fox) in Australia and Sky which shows F1 in UK are Murdoch owned. I think the skyf1 and coverage (Which Australia takes Would become "the HAAS program" next year?

Surely the Murdoch family sold Sky to Comcast a few years ago. And that's an American cable company that is in competition with Liberty, certainly in the States. Sky News is also owned, as far as I know, by Comcast as well.

One Australian outfit that is fairly active outside of Australia is Macquarie Bank, which has been hoovering up quite a few companies around the world.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Surely the Murdoch family sold Sky to Comcast a few years ago. And that's an American cable company that is in competition with Liberty, certainly in the States. Sky News is also owned, as far as I know, by Comcast as well.

One Australian outfit that is fairly active outside of Australia is Macquarie Bank, which has been hoovering up quite a few companies around the world.

An Australian company making headlines in the world of electric cars has recently been in the news for taking their production operations to the US making chargers.

https://usa.embassy.gov.au/news/aust...resident-biden

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by Casper

An Australian company making headlines in the world of electric cars has recently been in the news for taking their production operations to the US making chargers.

https://usa.embassy.gov.au/news/aust...resident-biden

Wow I have never heard of them here, and I follow such things
Surely they would be more likely to sponsor a Formula E or another EV category than F1?
Time will tell.

[E.B]

Alpine have fired their head of legal affairs as a direct result of the situation with Oscar Piastri last summer. In her position, Benedicte Mercer was directly involved in the contracts of drivers within Alpine, which included Piastri.

Records (at Company House) show that Mercer was 'terminated' on 8 November 2022.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/15849...stri-case.html

Scapegoat maybe but clearly her function was administration and drawing up of contracts so fair game probably given the merde that it all led to.

[AndreasDavour]

Interesting find. Does sounds reasonable that someone would need to take the hit.

[sizzle]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/sz...2023/10404471/

Snip Speaking at Sunday's Abu Dhabi season finale, Szafnauer believes Alpine has come out better from F1's standout silly season saga, because he thinks Gasly is a better driver than Piastri will turn out to be.

Oh Otmar, sometimes you should just move on

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by sizzle

Snip Speaking at Sunday's Abu Dhabi season finale, Szafnauer believes Alpine has come out better from F1's standout silly season saga, because he thinks Gasly is a better driver than Piastri will turn out to be.

Oh Otmar, sometimes you should just move on

I guess only time will tell on that one. Only a few years ago we had a poster that was telling us that the 'Honey Badger' was a better driver than Max Verstappen would ever become.

[steve_r]

Gasly has looked brilliant at times. This season though, he seems to have gone off the boil somewhat. Whether this is down to car or driver I don't know. I think a change of scenery might do him some good.

I have no idea how Piastri will get on. He was certainly highly sought after.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by sizzle

Speaking at Sunday's Abu Dhabi season finale, Szafnauer believes Alpine has come out better from F1's standout silly season saga, because he thinks Gasly is a better driver than Piastri will turn out to be.

Oh Otmar, sometimes you should just move on

He may be right, re driver talent or he may be wrong - no way of knowing either way (yet) - no data for Otmar, none for us on that yet.

Agree that he should move on though - the whole saga and many of the things that he had to say did not paint Otmar in a good light at all.

I actually found it quite interesting that when there were questions about Aston Martin component legality this year, Daddy Stroll didn't blaze away threatening legal action in the way that he's threatened previously - made me wonder if it was Otmar winding him up back then and if without that winding up, he is being more circumspect?

Originally Posted by steve_r

Gasly has looked brilliant at times. This season though, he seems to have gone off the boil somewhat. Whether this is down to car or driver I don't know. I think a change of scenery might do him some good.

I have no idea how Piastri will get on. He was certainly highly sought after.

Agree with this - Gasly has generally punched above his weight up until this year, has been one of the great shames of this season that we haven't seen some Gasly heroics at some stage. Whatever the cause, Alpine may be a positive change for him or it may not - I'm hopeful that it IS a positive change and we see some special weekends for him as on his day, he can be genuinely special.

As for Piastri, no question that he's good but remains to be seen how good he is in an F1 car and in the way of these things, I don't imagine think it'll be clear to those of us watching until a couple of seasons are under his belt.

[chillibowl]

One could argue that those coming from a RB designed car will struggle with cars from the Renault/Alpine development path?

On paper it’s a great young line up for a mid field team…should make for an even more interesting battle between Apline v Mclaren next season.

[S griffin]

Gasly has stagnated at AT. He needed a fresh change, as he knew he was never going to go back to RBR