Ryan Reynolds Buys Stake in F1 Racing Team, Growing His Business Empire
He joined investors like actor Michael B. Jordan in buying a 24% stake in the Alpine F1 team
He joined investors like actor Michael B. Jordan in buying a 24% stake in the Alpine F1 team
Actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds is expanding his business empire into Formula One racing.
Reynolds and a group that includes celebrity American investors, such as his business partner and fellow actor Rob McElhenney, are buying a 24% stake in the Alpine F1 team for about $218 million, the team’s owner said Monday.
F1 races have become more popular in the U.S. in recent years, with celebrities packing into stands to watch drivers speed around a track. Alpine, a mid-tier team based in the U.K., is one of 10 F1 competitors.
The investors are buying a stake in Alpine Racing Ltd, the parent company of the Alpine team, according to Renault Group, a French auto manufacturer and the team’s owner. Renault said the new investors would bring expertise in marketing, merchandising and other areas.
The deal values the racing team at around $900 million, Renault said.
Reynolds, 46 years old, has long been a Hollywood star, with leading roles in comedy, action and rom-com films. He has used his marketing savvy to build an off-screen empire, purchasing stakes in the gin brand Aviation, the cell phone company Mint Mobile and a Welsh soccer team. T-Mobile US agreed to buy Mint Mobile earlier this year for about $1.35 billion and Diageo agreed in 2020 to pay as much as $610 million to acquire Aviation.
Reynolds started the production company and marketing agency Maximum Effort, named after his character’s catchphrase in the “Deadpool” movie franchise.
Alpine’s new investors include the actor Michael B. Jordan and private investment firms Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners. The firms have been affiliated with sports teams including the Dallas Cowboys and the French soccer club Toulouse FC.
Maximum Effort and representatives for Reynolds didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Representatives for Jordan declined to comment.
Reynolds and McElhenney are involved with another sports team, Wrexham AFC, a low-tier soccer club in North Wales that they bought in 2020. They chronicled their takeover of the struggling team and efforts to transform it in a 2022 FX docuseries, “Welcome to Wrexham.” The club this spring won a promotion out of the lowest tier of English soccer to the second-worst league.
The Alpine F1 team is featured in the Netflix series, “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” which has drawn American fans to the sport since the show premiered in 2019.
F1 teams compete in many races each season. Several drivers represent each team and race in solo, aerodynamic cars.
The Alpine team has existed under different names for more than four decades. Renault renamed the team Alpine in 2021 after the company’s sports car brand, Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS. The team placed fifth and fourth out of 10 teams in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Laurent Rossi, the chief executive of the Alpine team and the sports car brand, said in a statement Monday that the team wanted to catch up with top squads and invest in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.
“This association is an important step to enhance our performance at all levels,” Rossi said.
Alpine said Monday that it aimed for its sports car brand to break even in 2026 and to generate more than $8.7 billion in revenue in 2030.
The team is based in the English village of Enstone, about 60 miles northwest of London.
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It’s easy to buy clunkers when you’re caught up in the moment. But regrettable purchases aren’t inevitable.
Trying to buy just the right souvenir on a trip is a risky business. You can wind up with a lifetime treasure—or an albatross you feel stuck with forever.
Consider the giant painting of a chicken flying out of Cuba that has been hanging over our couch in Palos Verdes, Calif., for the past 15 years. Buying it cheaply seemed to make sense when we were in Havana, since my husband’s family had fled the country after the revolution.
But the flying chicken just didn’t seem as, well, poignant by the time we returned home and hung the 4-by-7-foot painting. No guest has ever said a word about it. “I can’t help you with the chicken,” an art dealer told me long ago when I asked for help in selling it.
So, how do you find the right souvenir? Or is there even any such thing?
For many people, the answer to the second question is an unqualified “No,” and they have stopped trying. “Souvenirs never look as enticing or beautiful as they did at the time of purchase once you get them home,” warns Patricia Schultz, the author of “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.”
After collecting rugs on her trips, then Christmas ornaments, before running out of room at home for both, Schultz says, “I have gone cold turkey. I collect memories.”
But for others, surrendering just won’t do. “It’s intrinsic when people travel that they wind up bringing a keepsake of the journey,” says Rolf Potts, the author of “Souvenir,” a book that traces the history of travel souvenirs back to the earliest recorded journeys.
“It can be a way to show off,” he says. “Much like the envy-inducing travel posts on Instagram.” But for many people, he says, “It’s proof you were there, not only to show other people but also for yourself.”
For those who lean in this direction, there are ways to help avoid regrets. Tara Button , founder of the Buy Me Once website, and the author of “A Life Less Throwaway: The Lost Art of Buying for Life,” suggests focusing on practical items that fit your lifestyle and double as mementos.
As an example, she once bought a “very affordable” baby blanket made from alpaca fiber on a trip to Peru and now uses it every day. The blanket not only reminds her of “the time pre-children when I was traveling,” she says. “It goes over my 2-year-old son every night. It’s always soft and always gorgeous.”
She has a friend who collects one cup from each destination. “Those are perfect memory keepers,” she says. “A small item that is used every day.”
One obstacle to finding the right souvenir is that it can be hard to think practically when you are swept up in the excitement of a new culture. Consider the Burmese puppet, 15 inches tall, that has spent about two decades in the closet of Liz Einbinder , head of public relations for Backroads, an adventure-tour company.
“We saw a lot of puppets everywhere and just got caught up in all of the Burmese art and culture,” she says. Now she wonders, “Why did I bring this back? It sits in the back of my closet and I can’t seem to get rid of it. It creeps me out when I see it.”
When that buying urge sweeps over you, Button and other travel experts suggest pausing to consider your lifestyle, taste, needs, and the scale of your home—you’re going back to the reality of your everyday life, after all.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean being entirely practical. Einbinder collects miniatures, mostly miniature houses, from every country, and has more than a hundred. Most are in storage, but she keeps a little London bus and a little Egyptian pyramid on her desk. For her, souvenirs aren’t just about memories, they’re also about the hunt. “It gives me something to search for” on each trip, she says. “That’s half the fun.”
Another way travelers often go wrong is by giving in to pressure, or at least persistence, from salespeople.
When Kimba Hills, an interior designer, went to Morocco, she hired a guide who took her to a rug store in Fez, where the dealers delivered a whirlwind sales pitch while serving tea. She wound up buying a $4,000 flat-weave Turkish rug, measuring about 13 feet by 9 feet.
“No one in my group could believe I got seduced,” she says.
When the rug finally arrived at her home in Santa Monica, “It smelled like cow dung,” she says. Washing the rug was going to change the color.
When she called the dealer in Fez and demanded her money back, he refused, offering to send her a different rug instead. “We got into a yelling match,” says Hills. “All my skills went out the window.”
Looking back, she says, “You are in a buying mode because you are there and feel like you should buy something.” On a recent trip to Mexico, she bought nothing, explaining, “I’m wiser.”
Spontaneity can cut both ways. There’s the chicken painting. But waiting for inspiration to strike, rather than planning to go home with a souvenir, can still help.
Henry Zankov, a sweater designer, says that when he travels, he explores his destinations with the idea that he won’t buy anything unless he comes across something he loves. He still buys plenty, but says “I don’t have regrets.” At his home in Brooklyn, he has ceramics, vases and glassware from shops he found randomly in Spain, Greece, and Italy. “I buy what I have to have,” he says.
There are times he doesn’t find anything. “So I just give up,” he says. “It’s OK.”
Some souvenirs do become the treasure of a lifetime.
Annie Lucas , the co-owner of MIR, which offers tours to less-traveled destinations, became captivated by a mirror on a trip to Morocco. It was made with hand-pounded silver and pieces of camel bones.
She went back to the store three or four times, debating the cost and whether she would regret it once she got home. It was heavy and measured 24 inches by 40 inches.
“That was 15 years ago, and I still treasure it,” she says. “If I had to get out of my house and had only five minutes to pack, I would grab that off the wall.”
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.