Christian Horner in talks to buy Alpine stake, Briatore confirms
Alpine boss Flavio Briatore did not deny rumours that the former Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner, is in talks with Alpine shareholders to buy a stake in the French team.
Horner was relieved of his duties at the helm of Red Bull after 20 years of service in July last year and has since been on the lookout for a new role in Formula 1.
He has reportedly been in talks with several teams, with Aston Martin being rumoured, but nothing has come of it so far.
It has been suggested that Horner is on the hunt for a stake in the Alpine project rather than to resume his role as a Team Principal.
During the 2026 Alpine livery launch, Briatore said: "In this moment, this is a lot of confusion.
"A few groups - I don't know how many, six, seven; every day is a new group - every day people call me about Otro. I don't care.
"So [suppose] Otro want to sell their participation in Alpine. The moment somebody buys 24% of Otro, we still have 75% [the rest] and we discuss it. But for the moment, this is the situation.
"I've known Christian for many years, I talk with Christian anyway, but this has nothing to do with me.
“First you need to buy [the] Otro [share], and after Renault need to accept the buyer, and after we see what's happening.
"But there's no link with me, because he's negotiating with Otro, he's not negotiating with us."
"I think everybody's a good asset to the team, depending on what position you put the people. No problem."
Is part of Alpine up for grabs?
Alpine sold a 24% stake to Hollywood backers in 2023, including Oscar-nominated actor Michael B. Jordan and the Wrexham AFC co-owner Ryan Reynolds. The group also includes NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
The growth in F1's popularity overseas brought in investment groups Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners and Maximum Effort Investments to share the 24% stake in the team, priced around €200 million.
The investment group have worked with a range of different sports teams, from American football to Reynolds' Welsh football club, but this was their first venture in motorsport.
Horner is supposedly looking for a way to claim a share in the equity of Alpine rather than sitting at the forefront of the sport again.
This could potentially be in a similar fashion to Toto Wolff, who famously owns a third of the Mercedes F1 team in addition to being the Team Principal and CEO.
However, Horner would have to jump through several hurdles in order to purchase a stake in the French team which includes approval from its owner Renault.
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