"I’m not doing it as a sponsor, I’m doing it as an owner": Alfa Romeo boss opens up on why Haas negotiations fell through

Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato recently stated how he would like to stay in F1 as the proper owner of an F1 team rather than being a sponsor. Up until 2023, the Italian giants were present in the sport as a title sponsor for the Sauber team. Though they were widely known as the Alfa Romeo F1 team, the actual people who were working behind the scenes were from Sauber.

In 2023, Sauber cut ties with Alfa Romeo, leaving the automotive giants teamless. Though they tried to negotiate with Haas in order to join them, the deal fell apart.

Speaking to Ouest France, Jean-Philippe Imparato stated that the company was not interested in a similar deal like Sauber in the future.

“We weren’t interested in aiming to do a copy/paste operation in the style of the one done with Sauber. It would have led us to become one of those who puts stickers on bodywork. It would no longer have been new and we wouldn’t have been part of a story,” he said.

He later claimed that if he wanted to race in Formula 1, he would like to do it as the owner of a team rather than as a sponsor. Imparato added that Alfa Romeo is currently working hard on their future in single-seater racing and will come up with a program soon.

“If I do it, I’m not doing it as a sponsor, I’m doing it as an owner. And secondly, we’re doing it for a long time. We won’t do it for less than three seasons, with one or two seasons of preparation," he said.

“I really want to do something, so we’re working hard. As soon as we find a formula that works, we’ll tell you what the programme is,” he added.

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Alfa Romeo team principal explains their lack of communication regarding Audi's entry in F1

Sauber's managing director Alessandro Alunni Bravi recently reaffirmed that Audi is still very much committed to entering F1 with Sauber. Speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, he said:

"Audi has a strong commitment to Formula 1, of course together with Sauber. This commitment comes from a decision not only of the board of Audi but also the advisory board of Audi and the Supervisory Board of Audi Volkswagen. It’s a group decision and the commitment is there."

Furthermore, Bravi explained that the reason behind the lack of communication about Audi was to simply respect Alfa Romeo and not announce anything extra until the end of 2023.

"Why there is a lack of communication is simple. We are Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake," he continued. "So, until the end of the year, we have certain limitations in communicating about the team, about the future, about the involvement of Audi, and we fully respect Alfa Romeo for this.

"We don't want to make any kind of announcement or more than what is strictly related to the race and the championship. The commitment, as I said, is there. We are working hard to develop the structure of the team," he added.