Jordan’s disbelief at ‘preposterous’ F1 deal: “I don’t believe it” 

Alpine’s parent company, Renault, announced on Monday that the two Hollywood actors were joining an investor group alongside Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners to take a 24 per cent equity stake in Alpine Racing. 

The £171m deal values the British-based Alpine F1 team at around £706m. 

But former F1 team owner Jordan says the financial model behind the investment “doesn’t stack up”. 

“I don't believe it,” Jordan told GB News. “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.

“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. I noticed that there hasn’t been any reaction from Alpine or indeed from Renault which is a major shareholder.

“And I find that in itself kind of strange. To value something of that level at a gross value of £700m - it's preposterous. It's ridiculous. 

“What does that mean for the value of people like Ferrari or Mercedes or a Red Bull for example? That is what I consider to be the value of those teams. Alpine - it's just not even close to that yet.”

Jordan claimed the Renault Group are taking advantage of the public image of American stars Reynolds and McElhenney, who took over Wrexham Football Club in November 2020. 

“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,” he added. 

“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? Why is the team not called Renault? Are they hiding behind something?”