“I murdered my mother” – Enzo Ferrari is said to have said when he and his own racing team beat an Alfa Romeo factory car for the first time. That was long ago. Enzo Ferrari drove the Targa Florio in Alfa Romeo racing cars in the 1920s. Alfa Romeo was already racing in Formula 1950 races in the 1s, including the first two championship titles. In 1951, the legendary Fangio won the Formula 159 championship in an Alfa Romeo 1.
In 2018 the world looks completely different. Ferrari is one of the top teams in Formula 1 and Alfa Romeo is the sister brand in the FIAT group. While Sergio Marchionne has always found points of friction with the F1 organizations, he has nevertheless prepared the return of a second Italian brand to the world's most important motorsport circus. Alfa Romeo will act as the namesake for the new “Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1 Team” and will equip founder Peter Sauber's team, which has been racing with Ferrari engines since 2011, with the latest generation of Ferrari engines over the next three years .
The goals for the new Formula 1 team are still talked down, but it is clear: A Sergio Marchionne does not make its own competition to Ferrari, if one would expect only costs. The Sauber team will be starting 2018 with Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson, also a Sauber tradition. For the team from the Swiss town of Hinwil has always been regarded as an incubator for young talents.
With Alfa Romeo, one of the big names in F1 history returns to the racetracks of the world.