Former F1 supremo Eddie Jordan has expressed doubts over Ryan Reynolds’ investment in Alpine, questioning the new valuation of the team and suggesting the move is a publicity stunt.
On Monday, Alpine’s parent company Renault announced Reynolds and fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney were joining the F1 team as major investors, taking a 24 per cent stake in the outfit.
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Reynolds leads Maximum Effort Investments with McElhenney and Creed star Jordan as co-investors, joining Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners in an investment deal worth 200 million euros (AUD $325 million).
According to Renault, the investment deal means Alpine is now valued at A$1.34 billion — making it the third richest F1 team behind Ferrari and Mercedes.
But Jordan, who founded F1 constructor Jordan Grand Prix in 1991 and gave Michael Schumacher his debut, has labelled Alpine’s eye-watering increase in value “preposterous”.
“I don’t believe it, first of all. I won’t use the word fake news, but I mean, there’s absolutely no way from an accounting point of view — the financial model doesn’t stack up. That’s number one,” Jordan told GB News.
“I find that in itself kind of strange to value something of that level at a gross value of £700m (A$1.34 billion). It’s preposterous. It’s ridiculous.”
“I mean it’s all very nice and very sexy to put these figures on things but they need to be supported, and they need to be authorised.
“And I noticed that there hasn’t been any reaction from Alpine or indeed from Renault, which is the major shareholder, and I find that in itself kind of strange.
“What does that then value people like a Ferrari or a Mercedes or a Red Bull for example?
“That is what I consider to be the value of those teams, and I regret but with Alpine it’s not even close to that yet.”
For what’s it worth, Renault and Alpine have both publicly welcomed the new investment, while F1 chief Stefano Domenicali has said teams are receiving offers in the “billions” to buy them out.
“I would say two years ago, when the new Concorde Agreement has been signed, when there was the talk about ‘what is the value of a team that has to come in Formula 1,” Domenicali told the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“There was a number put on the Concorde Agreement, that was USD$200 million, which seemed unreachable, because there were teams in the past that were sold by £1.
“Now, the market is offering almost billions to teams, and they are refusing that. Can you imagine that?”
Reynolds and McElhenney took over Wrexham in 2020, funding the Welsh football club’s return to the English Football League as fifth-tier champions earlier this year.
The acting duo’s success with Wrexham proved they mean business in the world of sports ownership and their move into the world of F1 is another sign of the sport’s booming popularity in the United States.
But Jordan has his doubts about how much of an impact Reynolds and McElhenney’s investment will have on Alpine’s on-track performance in a sport with only 10 teams.
“The two people that you’ve mentioned, hugely big stars and a huge addition particularly for the American market, which is probably where Renault was trying to look forward to,” Jordan said.
‘They’re not probably putting a lot of their own money into this. I would say that the real people behind it in the States who have taken this investment, they’re using these two stars.
“Formula One is going through the roof and in terms of the sport, I think it’s behind football of course, but there’s actually only 10 franchises, whereas in football you’ve got 30 to 40 in each country throughout the world.
“So you multiply all of that out and then ask yourself, what is the value of having something in a niche market like Formula One?”
The F1 season continues at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday night at 11pm AEST.