‘Why Not Alfa Romeo in IndyCar?’ Asks Sergio Marchionne
Sergio Marchionne said the auto industry isn’t sustainable…at an earnings call with Wall Street experts
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, says the company is interested in entering Alfa Romeo into the IndyCar Series.
Marchionne has been making his presence felt in the motorsport world, particularly at Ferrari, which was in the running for the title in the 2017 Formula One World Championship. Notoriously, he threatened to leave F1 after 2020, though few people actually took it seriously.
In fact, the FCA has been amplifying its presence in the sport rather than scaling back. Recently, the Ferrari-powered Sauber F1 team announced Alfa Romeo had become its title sponsor, and at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Marchionne suggested that a similar move involving Maserati and the Haas F1 team would be “a good project.”
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He also said that they were considering entering Alfa Romeo into IndyCar. “Why not Alfa Romeo in IndyCar?” he asked. “We are thinking about it.”
“Gian Paolo Dallara—I consider him a great, the best Italian engineer around.” Dallara is the founder and owner of Dallara Automobili, which supplies IndyCar and various other single-seat, open-cockpit racing series with chassis and bodywork.
Jay Frye, IndyCar’s president of competition and operations, talked at length with Motorsport on the subject of adding another OEM to the series, and claimed its other manufacturers—Chevrolet and Honda—were keen on seeing another join them.
He would not, however, confirm whether FCA was one of the various OEMs with whom IndyCar had held talks, though there’s no denying that Marchionne’s comments made it seem like a strong possibility.
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News Source: Motorsport
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