Alfa Romeo

Interesting facts

Alfa Romeo's first return as an engine supplier was a minor footnote: in the 1960s, small teams such as LDS and the Cooper T53 fitted Alfa Romeo inline-four engines, and none of them ever scored a championship point. In 1970-1971 Alfa came back with a V8 derived from its sports-car unit, powering Andrea de Adamich's cars at McLaren and March, but the combination often failed even to qualify. The real breakthrough came in 1976, when Bernie Ecclestone negotiated free Alfa Romeo flat-12 engines for Brabham; the partnership matured in 1977-1978, when Niki Lauda scored fourteen podiums, including two race wins, for the team. From 1979, Alfa's own racing department, Autodelta, returned to the grid as a constructor in its own right, but the effort was never truly successful; highlights included Bruno Giacomelli's pole position at the 1980 United States Grand Prix and a handful of podiums, while Riccardo Patrese called the 185T 'the worst car he had ever driven.' In the modern era, Alfa Romeo returned in 2018 as title sponsor of Sauber, without any technical involvement in developing the car; the team continued to run customer Ferrari power units, and its best result was sixth in the 2022 Constructors' Championship. The brand's sponsorship role ended in 2023, after it was announced that Audi would take over Sauber from 2026, rendering Alfa Romeo's purely commercial presence redundant. Alfa Romeo raced in Formula 1 from 1963 to 2023, across 14 seasons as a Swiss team. The team scored a total of 199 constructors' championship points.