'It's all for vanity': Why are celebrities queuing up to invest in Alpine's F1 team?

“I am thrilled to lead an investor group and join forces with the team at Otro Capital on this exciting venture with Alpine F1,” said Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce — best known among non-NFL fans for his relationship with Taylor Swift. “Our shared passion for excellence and innovation forms the cornerstone of this partnership.

“It’s about being able to contribute to a sport that demands precision, teamwork, and relentless pursuit of success. I am looking forward to this new chapter and can’t wait to see what we achieve together.”

The gushing statement and those of his fellow investors failed to answer several questions: Why invest in F1? In Alpine? And what do they get out of it?

When Alpine sold its stake early in the summer, CEO Laurent Rossi — who has since been replaced — said that he hoped that the partnership would help boost the team’s revenue through improved sponsorship, licensing and merchandising deals.

Investing in F1 now offers the chance of a return, with the cost cap limiting how much teams can spend. Now, instead of ploughing every penny back into development, there’s the prospect of profits; a return for investors; and a rising team value. Although with doubts over F1’s growth rate and upheaval at Alpine, none are guaranteed for the consortium.

“It’s mostly all about vanity,” said marketing and brand consultant Naman Agrawal at CBR Media, a marketing and management agency that specialises in motor sport. “It’s a way for Alpine to associate itself with the fans of the sport through celebrities and leverage a following into different markets.

“They’ve got NFL stars, Rory McIlroy, Trent Alexander Arnold,” he told Motor Sport. “Given the recent growth of F1 and also the specific focus toward the US market, it’s a good way for the team to compete with the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.”

Following its rebrand from Renault to Alpine in 2021, the team has undergone a multitude of changes in an attempt to return to its front-running days of the mid-2000s. The re-hiring of Fernando Alonso was seen a significant step, as was luring team principal Otmar Szafnauer from Aston Martin. For a time, the team’s future was even in sure hands with Oscar Piastri waiting in the wings. But those three have now all left, and the team isn’t just struggling on track.

“Alpine are very much backrunners in terms of marketing,” added Agrawal, an advisor to F1 Academy’s Bianca Bustamante, who recently became the first female member of the McLaren driver academy.

“They fly under the radar in terms of engagement with fans and are also kind of the dark horse of the midfield. They’re the only ones left who build and use the Renault engine. At least this deal is making people take notice.”

So it’s an injection of attention for Alpine, using sporting celebrities as influencers, hoping that their stardust will rub off on the team. But what about the people stumping up the money?

“For the personalities themselves, I don’t think it’s a very good investment. They’re not going to get anything out of it apart from a way into the Formula 1 club.”

Think of it as an exclusive grand prix ticket: a cut above the corporate guests sipping champagne in the Paddock Club; the financiers sunbathing on yachts in Miami’s fake harbour; or the Las Vegas hotel guests watching the racing from their lavish suites.

But the perks of being a team investor, which presumably include behind-the-scenes access, as well as VIP treatment in the paddock, garage and on the grid, doesn’t come entirely without risk, particularly if investors aren’t fully committed to the partnership.

“Sometimes when these A-listers start attending these events, fans can be put off by it,” Agrawal continued. “Especially if they get interviewed by Martin Brundle and end up revealing that they have no idea what’s going on. It angers people.”

Last year’s US Grand Prix brought a famous confrontation between Brundle and a bodyguard for rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who wasn’t keen on a live TV conversation with the Sky Sports commentator. F1 fans in general aren’t impressed by celebrities who appear on the grids with little apparent enthusiasm or knowledge for the sport.

Alpine’s deal has undoubtedly raised funds and publicity, but it’s far from clear whether other teams will go down a similar route, not least because they may not want to sell a stake.

“For Alpine itself this is very much a publicity stunt or an effort from its marketing team to get these stars to be associated with them,” said Agrawal. “I don’t think there’s going to be this wave of celebrities getting involved with the sport now and it becoming more internationalised than it already is. If smaller teams like Haas see value in it from a commercial side, they might follow the same path. But the ship is slowly sinking.”

Agrawal’s view mirrors the sentiment from others that F1’s period of stellar growth is slowing. The number of viewers and social media followers surged as Drive to Survive brought a new generation of fans and the captivating, controversial 2021 title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton got them hooked. Since then, some unofficial figures have suggested a decline in new followers, woth many pointing to Verstappen’s predictable domination as the reason.

Alpine may have identified celebrity investors as a way to right the ship. But Agrawal — whose agency is based in Hong Kong — believes that others should look elsewhere for F1’s next big thing.

“There is definitely more scope to grow in F1 — but not just by getting celebrities involved,” he says. “The Asian regions especially; there’s an untapped market of literally billions of people that don’t have a chance to engage with the sport.

“I think the Chinese Grand Prix next year will definitely help. So in order for the sport to keep growing, F1 needs to be targeting influencers from those regions rather than getting A-list celebrities involved.”

Agrawal speaks from personal experience, having worked with the marketing arm of Craft-Bamboo Racing — a professional motor sport team with Mercedes AMG factory support based in Hong Kong. Similarly to Alpine — although on a much smaller scale — the team is constantly on the look out for new ways of maintaining a positive cash flow so its drivers can go racing every weekend, whether it’s from traditional sponsorship or a celebrity tie-in.

“It’s a very big vanity thing. For someone like Juan Mata [an ex-professional football player turned Alpine investor] — who isn’t spoken about in the media at all anymore — he now suddenly gets this exposure thanks to F1. He’s not really going to get anything out of it besides that. They’re all just jumping on the hype train.

“In terms of performance, I don’t think the investment will help. Obviously they’ll get a cash injection and that might help out on-track, but this investment is more aimed at brand perception; convincing people to be invested in Alpine as a product.”