“In The World Of Sports Partnerships Nothing Comes Easily”

For the latest in a series of interviews building up to the new Formula One season on Sunday, iSPORTCONNECT’s Jay Stuart spoke to Antoine Magnan, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Alpine F1 Team, to find out more about how the team’s rebranding from Renault F1 has changed their thinking.

Sometimes innovation has elements of looking backward. The new Alpine F1 Team that takes part in its debut race in Bahrain next weekend is not only a re-branding of Renault F1, but actually the continuation of a story begun long ago. Alpine has been making sports car in France since the 1950s and when Renault first entered F1 in 1977, the new team used the Alpine 500 chassis. 

Today, Alpine (acquired in 1973) is the avant-garde brand of Groupe Renault and the French manufacturer (ninth largest in the world in production volume / 2020 revenues €43.5 billion) has very big ambitions to develop the market for the Alpine portfolio of road cars at the international level. 

“For our partners in the U.S. it’s really brand-new because Alpine is a new manufacturer for them.”

The decision to re-brand the Renault team was a bold one and before the official announcement of the move last September there were many months of preparation and online meetings (with Renault’s group CEO taking part) to introduce Alpine to Renault F1’s 40 or so commercial partners, 10 of whom appear on the race car. 

“It’s a new story for them to tell,” says Antoine Magnan, Alpine F1 Team Commercial Director. “For our partners in the U.S. it’s really brand-new because Alpine is a new manufacturer for them.”

Asked if having a new brand might make it easier to attract new partners for the F1 team, he replies with a smile, “In the world of sports partnerships there nothing comes easily, especially in times of the pandemic crisis. Marketing budgets are the first to be cut and Formula 1 is not the only sport. That said, unlike most others, we not only have our sports story but also a tech story and a lifestyle story. The range of potential partners is always increasing. In a way, the rebranding does help. Alpine is a much more premium brand and it’s a fresh brand and a younger brand.”

The Renault brand has not entirely left F1. The Alpine F1 team is powered by Renault engines. From the start of the year, Alpine is a new, fully integrated unit within the Renault Groupe. The F1 and the consumer business operate as one, with a solid bridge between the R&D in F1 and manufacturing of the road car. “For the unit to have real substance, you need marketing involvement and Formula 1 is key tool in raising awareness, especially in markets where Alpine is not known such as Asia and the Americas.”

Alpine is joining the club of premium automobile brands in Formula 1 with Mercedes and Ferrari and Aston Martin, a new entrant this season. One big difference is that Alpine cars are more affordable with a price in the range of €60K ($70k / £51k).

“Our brand is about the enjoyment of driving. In a time when there is so much focus on the idea of the autonomous car that does everything for you, we are just the opposite.”

Also distinctive is the fresh brand philosophy. “Alpine is great value for money and the aluminium chassis means a fantastic driving experience,” Antoine says. “Our brand is about the enjoyment of driving. In a time when there is so much focus on the idea of the autonomous car that does everything for you, we are just the opposite. Rather than being a vehicle that takes you automatically from A to B, Alpine is about the feeling of the journey, the experience of getting there.”

Antoine sees F1 as offering a broad canvas for activation. “Winning in Formula 1 is just like in any other sport. It means being in the spotlight and every brand wants to be in the spotlight, so winning of course is important. But the opportunity for a brand extends well beyond the results on the track. You can activate in a completely different way for different partners. For B2C partners it’s important for a team to be on the podium and get the public’s attention. For B2B you can give a great deal of value to partners with things like testimonials and illustrations of the business case that show how they have helped you get better results. I would actually prefer to finish third coming from the back of the grid than starting in pole position and staying first place the whole way.”

On that note, he also questions whether winning begins to deliver diminishing returns for a team that wins all the time (like Mercedes, which has captured seven F1 titles in a row). “It may be that there is such a thing as being too dominant. Fans may pay less attention or you might even lose some fans entirely. And it might not be good for the sport.”

Most of us would probably agree that winning all the time is a nice problem to have to deal with. But Antoine’s point runs deeper.

“We all know that the value of companies these days is really about the value of the brand. Look at an iPhone,” he hold his up. “It costs a hundred euros to make and you put the Apple logo on it and sell it for a thousand. That’s the power of the brand. For a brand that is in sports I think it’s important to focus not so much on the results but more on how you get the results. You need to think about the way you do things.” 

As every sports fan knows, perhaps less so nowadays than in the past, style is a mark of quality.

“We want to show how hard F1 is, for the drivers and for the 1500 employees who put the cars on the track. That’s the best proof of why the drivers are heroes.”

That thinking will play a big part in the way Alpine F1 does things.

“For a lot of today’s casual fans, Formula 1 looks easy, a bit like a video game. They don’t see a driver losing two kilos during a race from perspiration. They don’t feel the pain. We want to show how hard F1 is, for the drivers and for the 1500 employees who put the cars on the track. That’s the best proof of why the drivers are heroes.”

For its heroes Alpine F1 will have two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon on the grid this season. The latter took second place in Bahrain for Renault F1 last year, so Alpine might well be up on that podium at the Sakhir circuit on Sunday.

No matter what the results are on the track in 2021, Alonso and Ocon are already guaranteed to deliver spotlight moments for the Alpine brand. The two drivers have their own new Alpine road cars to drive, obeying the speed limit of course.