F1 champion Nico Rosberg drops team sale BOMBSHELL live on air

Italian Grand Prix

F1 champion drops team sale BOMBSHELL live on air

Nico Rosberg has been offered a stake in an F1 team

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 1 September 2024 12:58 Updated: 20:56

Former Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg has made an astonishing claim about the sale of a current F1 team.

Rosberg raced in F1 between 2006-2016, winning 23 grands prix and claiming the 2016 world championship title before retiring in the aftermath.

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He has since become a fixture of Sky Sports' coverage, both on Sky Germany and Sky Sports F1.

During the Italian Grand Prix weekend, the German was working as a co-commentator for Sky Sports F1, and suggested that he had been offered a stake in a current F1 team.

Travis Kelce is one of Alpine's superstar investors

Rosberg offered F1 team stake

In a rather astonishing revelation, Rosberg suggested he had been emailed by Alpine, asking if he wanted to buy a stake in the struggling team.

The Enstone outfit have already acquired a number of high-profile investors, including Travis Kelce, Rory McIlroy and football star Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Alpine have had a tumultuous 2024, looking like the slowest team on the grid at the start of the season, before making gains on their competitors and becoming regular points scorers in recent races.

"Oh that’s in my email," Rosberg said during FP3 when talking about opportunities to invest in F1. "I have a secondary opportunity to buy a part of Alpine.

"No [I am not buying it], even Alpine is profitable, of course that can all change."

David Croft then joked that his co-commentator could become the latest in a long line of superstars involved within Alpine: "Ryan Reynolds, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Nico Rosberg - how many more superstar owners does this team need?"

Alpine then released a statement regarding Rosberg's comments, denying that the team was for sale: "This statement is incorrect and we would like to clarify that the team is not selling more shares, beyond the 24 percent stake already sold to the Investor Group (Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, and Maximum Effort Investments) acquired in June 2023.

"The Investor Group includes a number of international athletes and sports investors, and the Investor Group are constantly looking out for potential new investors as part of their existing 24 percent stake in the team.

"We reiterate what top management have said previously, the team is categorically not for sale."

Formula 1 Alpine Sky Sports Italian Grand Prix Nico Rosberg