What Alfa Romeo thinks about Formula 1 after 2024

Since 2018, Sauber has been building cars bearing the Alfa Romeo name, the team’s naming sponsor, using Ferrari power units and other mechanical parts, of course. However, the Scuderia, which of course belongs to the same concern as Alfa Romeo, would like to have a second team of its influence in the world’s leading motorsport.

However, the partnership with Sauber cannot continue as Team Heinville is gradually bought by Audi to allow the German company to form its own team to enter Formula 1 in 2026 with its own chassis and engine.

So after the end of the partnership with Sauber, Alfa Romeo is now looking for the next step. And with just 15 months to go, Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Ibarato says the company is in no rush to make decisions.

The strongest scenario for Alfa Romeo to continue its involvement in Formula 1 is to partner with a team that will continue to use Ferrari’s mechanical parts – namely the following: Haas. An alternative scenario is to work with a new team looking to enter the sport, always with Ferrari engines – like Andretti, the well-known American family of former F1 World Champion (1978 with Lotus), Mario Andretti.

Otherwise, Alfa Romeo could seek its future in other forms of racing. The Formula E electric car championship fits in with the Italian company’s strategy to fully electrify cars by 2025.

Then there’s the World Endurance Championship (WEC), with races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will bring together the vast majority of big factories for years to come. Among them Ferrari, in the premier class of LMPh hybrids.

“I’m open to any suggestion”said Ibarato. “It’s a time that gives me the opportunity to study everything without pressure and I do that. And I would say even if we have to make a decision by the end of this year, you have a few weeks or even months to see how each business is doing and choose a peaceful atmosphere.

So I’m in no hurry. Everything on the table I would say. I would like to find the perfect compromise between racing DNS and the transition to electrification that you see. What I want to achieve is continuity between the stories [της Alfa Romeo] and the necessary existential movement I need to make. And it’s not an obvious move.”

The 56-year-old Frenchman added: “2024 will be the first year that we present a 100% electric Alfa Romeo. So I can’t make plans for a quarter. We have to plan for the longer term. So I said [στους συνεργάτες μου] that we must open a new chapter in our history, a new chapter in our adventure.”

And when asked if he was thinking about the WEC and LeMans, he replied: “We don’t have anything specific for 2024, nothing at all. Today I’m focusing on 2022-’23. In the coming months we will be ready to open the envelope for 2024 or ’25 or ’26. And I’ll be back when I think I’ve got my hands on some real sporty Italian DNA tshe Alfa Romeo.

We need stability: for me, the Italian sporting philosophy is its trademark Alfa Romeo. And of course I have to make it clear once again that we will never race with an engine other than theirs Ferrari if we stay Formula 1″concluded Ibarato.