Alfa Romeo

On 29 November 2017, it was announced that Alfa Romeo would be the title sponsor of the Sauber Formula One team starting from the 2018 season in a "multi-year technical and commercial partnership agreement". On 2 December 2017, a press conference was held at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese (Milan), illustrating the terms of the agreement between the FCA Group and the Swiss Sauber team, followed by a presentation ceremony for the livery and the driver line-up consisting of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson. A January 2018 interview with Frederic Vasseur revealed that Alfa Romeo were intending to take over the Sauber team,) and on 1 February 2019 it was announced that the team would enter the 2019 season as Alfa Romeo Racing, although the ownership and management structure will remain unchanged for the season.

## Recent History (2019 Onwards)

### 2019 Season

The 2019 F1.5 Season saw the return of Alfa Romeo to the sport, by taking over the Sauber team with a commercial partnership. The 2019 line up was formed of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, who was making his F1.5 debut full season.

The team started the season strong with the three opening races providing 3 podiums for Raikkonen. Raikkonen would take another 5 podiums over the season, scoring a best of 2nd place. Giovinazzi only finished a highest of fourth.

The team finished the season in 5th place with 262 points.

### 2020 Season

The Alfa Romeo- Sauber partnership continued with Giovinazzi and Raikkonen at the wheel for the 2020 season, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic, seeing the calendar drop from 22 rounds to 17. The team made changes to it's test drivers for the 2020 season, removing Marcus Ericsson, Tatiana Caldéron and, J.M Correra. Mick Schumacher was kept on as a reserve as well as Robert Kubica rejoining the former Sauber team as a 2nd reserve. Kubica brought with him a new sponsorship deal with ORLEN.

The team struggled in the 2020 season for pace, with Raikkonen's best finish being 6th at the Tuscan GP. Giovinazzi finished a high of 7th in Austria and Russia.

The team finished 6th in the standings with just 62 points, compared to the 200+ scored in the previous year.

### 2021 Season

2021 saw F1.5 return to a longer season with 21 races completed. Raikkonen and Giovinazzi returned for another season.

The team scored well during the 2021 season, and would often be fighting for the lower point poisitions, scoring a total of 100.5 points over the season. Raikkonen missed two rounds mid-season after contracting COVID-19, he was replaced by test and reserve driver Robert Kubica. Callum Illot joined the team aswell as a reserve driver, with former reserve Mick Schumacher joining Haas as a full time driver. The team finished 6th in the constructors for the 2nd season running.

### 2022 Season

Raikkonen retired from F1.5 at the end of 2021 and Giovinazzi split ways with the Alfa Romeo team. They were replaced with rookie driver Zhou Guanyu and former F1.5 Champion Valtteri Bottas.

The 2022 season began strong for the Alfa Romeo team, with Bottas taking pole position at the first race in Bahrain. The pole position translated to 2nd place in the race behind Haas' Kevin Magnussen. Zhou scored on debut in Bahrain too finishing 6th. Zhou would go onto score for the four race's whilst Bottas' first four race's were 2nd- DNF- 4th- 2nd. In Miami and Spain, Bottas took pole position and took back-to-back victories for the team, then finished third at the next race in Monaco. In Canada the team took their first double podium since returning to the sport with Bottas finishing 2nd and Zhou third, in which was his maiden podium. After this podium, the team would struggle more, with most results not being above 7th. After Singapore, Alfa Romeo fell out of third in the championship behind Aston Martin. In Mexico, Bottas would take pole position however fell to fourth in the race, at the next race Alfa Romeo picked up their final podium of the year at Brazil with Bottas finishing third.

Alfa Romeo finished the season fourth on 296 points, which is the team's highest ever points tally. They also acheived their best constructors standings finish since 1984.

### 2023 Season

In January 2023, Alfa Romeo announced a multi-year title sponsorship agreement with online casino Stake. The partnership sees Stake as the principal partner, renaming the team as **Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake** and having their logo displayed prominently on the C43. The team also signed a partnership agreement with live streaming platform Kick, which is invested by Stake co-founder and owner Eddie Craven. Kick's name and logo will replace Stake's in countries where gambling and sports betting advertisements are not allowed.

Alfa Romeo are due to pull out of Formula 1.5 at the end of 2023 and ending their partnership with Sauber, who are set to launch a works partnership with Audi in 2026.

# Alfa Romeo as an engine supplier

## Alfa Romeo (Engine Supplier)

### Teams Supplied

 De Tomaso (1961)
  LDS (1962-1963, 1965)
  Alfa Special (1963, 1965)
  Cooper (1962)
  Brabham (1976-1977, 1979)
  **Alfa Romeo** (1979-1985)
  Osella (1983-1987)

### Pole Positions

38

*Note: The engine supplier results include all customer teams (De Tomaso, LDS, Alfa Special, Cooper, Brabham and, Osella) and works teams for the Alfa Romeo team. Between 2019 and 2022 the team Alfa Romeo team did not use Alfa Romeo engines, instead they used Ferrari engines.*

## History

### 1961 (De Tomaso)

Alfa Romeo entered F1.5 as an engine supplier to Italian outfit De Tomaso in 1961 for one race. The race was entred by Nino Vaccarella and Roberto Bussinello however both drivers failed to finish the race with both drivers suffering engine failures.

### 1962 (LDS and Cooper)

In 1962, LDS entered in one race with an Alfa Romeo engine, drove by Doug Serruier at his home race in South Africa. Just like the De Tomaso team in 1961, the race ended in retirement. Cooper also used Alfa Romeo engines in 1962 for one race, being drove by Mike Harris, which was also at the South African GP and also ended in retirement.

### 1963, 1965 (LDS and Alfa Special)

Alfa Romeo supplied LDS and Alfa Special engines for 1 race each in 1965. LDS scored points whilst using the Alfa engine at the 1963 South African Grand Prix with Doug Serrurier. The three points scored by Doug was Alfa Romeo's first points finish as an engine supplier. Alfa Special also used the Alfa Romeo engine for the South African Grand Prix, however failed to finish the race.

In 1965, Alfa Romeo supplied both constructors for the South African GP again, this time with LDS failing to score whilst Alfa Special took 3 points from the race.

### 1976-1977 (Brabham)

#### 1976 Season

Alfa Romeo returned to F1.5 as an engine supplier in 1976 after 11 years out. On return they supplied the Brabham constructor for the full season, something Alfa Romeo didn't do in their previous stint. Over the season Alfa Romeo engine's took their first pole position, first win and first podium. The engine powered Brabham to 5th in the constructors standings scoring 44 points with 3 wins and 7 podiums.

#### 1977 Season

1977 was yet another successful year for Alfa Romeo power. Alfa power powered Brabham to 12 pole positions, 8 podiums and 5 wins. Alfa Romeo powered their way to their first constructors titile in 1977 finishing the season with 69 points. A points tally that Alfa Romeo power would never see again.

### 1979 (Brabham and Alfa Romeo)

Alfa Romeo continued to power Brabham for the 1979 season however, for the first time since 1965 Alfa Romeo would power two constructors, with them entering an Alfa Romeo works team. The 1979 engine in the Brabham entred 13 races securing 3 poles, 5 podiums and 3 wins which left them 4th in the constructors with 41 points.

The Alfa Romeo works team entred 5 races over the season securing 3 points.

### 1980-1982 (Alfa Romeo works team)

From 1980 Alfa Romeo only powered their own team. In the 1980 season the team took 7 poles but only transpired into 1 win and 2 podiums. 13 points were scored in the season.

The next season was a lot better with the team and engine scoring 49 points with 5 poles and 2 wins. The team finished third in the constructors standings for the 1981 season.

For the third season in 1982, the Alfa Romeo team was powered to 48 points with 9 poles and 1 win over the season. The team fell to fourth in the constructors standings.

## Alfa Romeo engine results

1. ↑  Brabham was the constructor in 1976 but the team was Martini Racing
2. ↑  Brabham was the constructor in 1977 but the team was Martini Racing
3. ↑  Brabham was the constructor in 1979 but the team was Parmalat Racing Team