Wrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buy stake in Alpine F1 team

McElhenney and Reynolds are part of a large group of investors in the British F1 team. Photo: GETTY IMAGES/Jan Kruger

Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are part of an investment group that owns a 24% stake in Alpine Racing, a Formula One team.

A deal worth 200 million euros (171, 3 million pounds) Alpine Racing — about 706 million pounds.

Reynolds and McElhenney are part of a group that also includes Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners. Alec Shiner, co-founder and partner of Otro Capital, will join the board of directors of Alpine Racing.

Reynolds and McElhenney took over Wrexham in November 2020, funding the Welsh football club's return to the English Football League. Tier 5 Champions this April.

Their hit docu-series «Welcome to Wrexham» was a big hit in North America, bringing the little-known club to worldwide attention.

>Announcing about the deal with Alpine, Renault, the parent company of the team, announced that Huntsman Family and Main Street Advisors took part in the investment of Otro and RedBird.

RedBird, an American investment company run by former Goldman Sachs banker Jerry Cardinale. , is an investor in Fenway Sports Group, owner of Premier League club Liverpool and the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The group also owns a majority stake in French Ligue 1 club Toulouse and bought Italy's AC Milan last August in a £1bn deal that also included the owners of the New York Yankees baseball team.

Alpine Racing, based in Enston in central England, won the F1 Constructors' World Championships in 2005 and 2006 when they competed as the Renault works team, and also as Benetton in 1995. They finished fourth in the championship last year and are currently fifth after eight out of 22 races. Their two riders are Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who are ninth and tenth respectively in the individual competition.

Alpine ranks fifth among constructors this year. Credit: GETTY IMAGES/Dan Mullan

Renault has said that Alpine Racing SAS, the French company that builds the team's powertrains in Viry-Châtillon, will remain wholly owned by the automaker.

our performance at all levels,” said Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi. “Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners and Maximum Effort Investments, as international players with a long track record in the sports industry, will bring their recognized expertise to improve our media and marketing strategy to support our long-term sports performance.

“The extra income generated will in turn be reinvested into the team to further accelerate our Mountain Climber plan to catch up with the best teams in terms of state of the art facilities and equipment.

Alpinist is a 100 race championship plan starting in 2022.