The chief executive of Renault Group, Luca de Meo, has firmly stated that the Alpine Formula 1 team is not on the market.
Following the sale of a significant part of the team to investors last year, during a time marked by ongoing staffing issues and a downturn in performance for 2024, there was increased conjecture about Alpine being an ideal way into Formula 1 for the aspiring Andretti-Cadillac project.
"I want to make this very clear," de Meo told Autocar. "There is no way we are going to give up. We will not sell even a part of this thing."
It is widely believed within the F1 community that even the smallest and least successful teams have a market value exceeding US $1 billion.
"I've had people making offers left and right," de Meo remarked, "then talking in the press about it. But we're not interested. It would be stupid and I won't do it."
Nevertheless, he concedes that the challenges facing Alpine are profound, indicating that "there will be more" significant departures from the team soon.
De Meo traces the root of the team's difficulties back to the commencement of the hybrid engine period in 2014, when "things went wrong" with Renault's power unit.
"And this year we've screwed up with the car," he said. "If you combine everything, we're up to 1.5 seconds from where we need to be. For this year and 2025, we will try with the current setup, then push to get things right for the next cycle. I don't think we deserve to be a top team at present, but we're not in F1 to be tourists so we need to work hard."
