About the Caterham/Renault/Alpine deal

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/c ... r-venture/

Caterham has bought a 50% stake in the Renault-owned Automobiles Alpine Renault, which was originally the historic French Alpine manufacturer which was a giant of the rallying world in the 1970s and whose Dieppe Plant in Normandy has been more recently used as the base for the production of Renault Sport models. The new company will be known as The Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham when it is launched in January.

Cool move by Fernandes. If Red Bull ever defect to Porsche he will be fighting Lotus for a works deal. Being in a joint venture with Goshn will help him big time.

[FW17]

should enter lmp1 and call it A110

[Pandamasque]

'110' stood for the engine capacity from what I understand, unless it's a mere coincidence. In any case later Alpine cars had other numeric names. The name is not as well known as '911', so it wouldn't even make sense to return to A110 for marketing reasons, as anyone who remembers the A110 would see through the marketing BS.

But I totally can see them doing an inexpensive LMP2 project. Take a Nissan-based 3.5 V6 race engine tried and tested in Megane Trophy silhouettes and old WSR cars, brand it Alpine and voila! While at it, Caterham might as well acquire Lola Cars and Composites facilities to design and produce own chassis in-house and sell them to customers. And the Alpine A350 race car is born. Surely if Kolles can do that without any backing from car manufacturers, Fernandes can.

[FW17]

so it wouldn't even make sense to return to A110 for marketing reasons, as anyone who remembers the A110 would see through the marketing BS.

It was called Berlinette

What an organic shape it has. Hope they evolve it like the 911, beetle or 500.

[FW17]

Wonderful strategy by Renault wide presence in the F1 championship and connecting them to real world

Alpine Caterham

Renault Williams Clio

Infinity Red-Bull

Only the Enstone team seems to be with no known purpose, may be they should get Dany Bhar


And all this costing lesser than running a team.

[Cold Fussion]

Wonderful strategy by Renault wide presence in the F1 championship and connecting them to real world

Alpine Caterham

Renault Williams Clio

Infinity Red-Bull

Only the Enstone team seems to be with no known purpose, may be they should get Dany Bhar


And all this costing lesser than running a team.

Please no. Enstone are a likable team now that Flavio is gone.

[bucker]

Wonderful strategy by Renault wide presence in the F1 championship and connecting them to real world

Alpine Caterham

Renault Williams Clio

Infinity Red-Bull

Only the Enstone team seems to be with no known purpose, may be they should get Dany Bhar


And all this costing lesser than running a team.

Or Dacia

[CHT]

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/11/c ... r-venture/

Caterham has bought a 50% stake in the Renault-owned Automobiles Alpine Renault, which was originally the historic French Alpine manufacturer which was a giant of the rallying world in the 1970s and whose Dieppe Plant in Normandy has been more recently used as the base for the production of Renault Sport models. The new company will be known as The Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham when it is launched in January.

Cool move by Fernandes. If Red Bull ever defect to Porsche he will be fighting Lotus for a works deal. Being in a joint venture with Goshn will help him big time.

when I read the new, the first question that came to my mine is if Fernandes can really pull this off, and the 2nd question is, Is he trying window dress his caterham group so that he can off load the entire company to recover his investment?

And from a strategic point of view. Renault already have Nissan partnership to produce brilliant affordable sports car and they are doing extremely well in that area. So what good will this bring for Renault and what can Renault realistically expect from a guy who have no prior experience in the automobile industry? And if you want to produce affordable sports car, why choose France and no make it in Malaysia?

If you look at what Fernandes has done over the past 3 years, most of this his project actually didnt turn out the way he promised, in fact, I think the are actually moving backward.

- Team Lotus (fall out with Proton, lost the Lotus name)
- Bought over QPR, still stuck at the bottom of league table without a win and destine to be relegated
- Purchase of Caterham - no new development other than shifting factory.
- Caterham F1, 3 years, with KERS, still couldnt challenge mid field and now about the lose that 10th place in WCC to Marussia

Not trying to pour cold water on what he is doing, but I think this guy is simply biting off more than he can chew. Honestly, what makes him think that with such a limited resources and no prior experience, he can run a successful football club, F1 racing team, producing 2 brands of sports cars, all within a span of 3 to 4 years?

[sesku]

when I read the new, the first question that came to my mine is if Fernandes can really pull this off, and the 2nd question is, Is he trying window dress his caterham group so that he can off load the entire company to recover his investment?

And from a strategic point of view. Renault already have Nissan partnership to produce brilliant affordable sports car and they are doing extremely well in that area. So what good will this bring for Renault and what can Renault realistically expect from a guy who have no prior experience in the automobile industry? And if you want to produce affordable sports car, why choose France and no make it in Malaysia?

If you look at what Fernandes has done over the past 3 years, most of this his project actually didnt turn out the way he promised, in fact, I think the are actually moving backward.

- Team Lotus (fall out with Proton, lost the Lotus name)
- Bought over QPR, still stuck at the bottom of league table without a win and destine to be relegated
- Purchase of Caterham - no new development other than shifting factory.
- Caterham F1, 3 years, with KERS, still couldnt challenge mid field and now about the lose that 10th place in WCC to Marussia

Not trying to pour cold water on what he is doing, but I think this guy is simply biting off more than he can chew. Honestly, what makes him think that with such a limited resources and no prior experience, he can run a successful football club, F1 racing team, producing 2 brands of sports cars, all within a span of 3 to 4 years?

But his main business is Tune Group which include AirAsia. The airline is rapidly expanding and that is his biggest source of money.

[kaepernickus]

Wonderful strategy by Renault wide presence in the F1 championship and connecting them to real world
..........
Only the Enstone team seems to be with no known purpose, may be they should get Dany Bhar

The "Lotus F1 Team" from Enstone is majority-owned by "Genii Capital" since December 2009 and the remaining 25% stake owned by Renault was sold to Genii in December 2010. So it has been 100% owned by Genii for the last two years. Renault is only selling them motors, like they sell them to Williams or Caterham.

Regarding the influence of Lotus (Proton) on the team:

In December 2010 Group Lotus (Proton) purchased a title sponsorship deal with the team with the option to buy shares in the future.