Beyond Sergio Marchionne’s ambitious plans for Alfa Romeo to massively expand its range of road cars in the coming years, the Italian is also very eager for the automaker to return to the top-level of motorsport.
Alfa Romeo is said to be interested in returning to racing, possibly through the badging of a Formula 2 engine or a full-on entrance into the LMP2 endurance program. Such a return would follow on from Alfa’s upcoming entrant into the TCR International Series courtesy of a special Giulietta race car created by Romeo Ferraris.
Motorsport has long been used by automakers as a form of advertising, with it having the potential to be exceptionally lucrative. Ferrari is perhaps best known for its shunning of traditional forms of advertising in favour of competing in leading motorsport categories, most notably Formula One.
While recently speaking with Motorsport, Marchionne said “Alfa Romeo is still in peoples’ hearts, so we are thinking of a comeback in motorsport. It is important that Alfa comes back, and they will be one more competitor.”
As for Alfa’s plans for its road cars, it emerged a couple of days ago that its expand model lineup won’t be completed until 2020, rather than the 2018 date initially set. Alongside the Giulia sedan, Alfa Romeo is planning on launching two SUVs, an executive sedan, a new sports car in coupe and Spider variants and two new compact models.
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