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Superstar actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney rocked the world of soccer when they purchased small Welsh club Wrexham AFC in 2020.
It seemed like nothing but a publicity stunt.
But Reynolds and McElhenney have since led Wrexham back to the English Football League for the first time in over a decade. And it’s all been documented on the FX series Welcome to Wrexham.
But now the duo have bigger plans. Much, much bigger plans.
Reynolds and McElhenney, alongside fellow Hollywood star Michael B. Jordan and several other investors, purchased a 24 percent stake in the Alpine Formula 1 team on Monday.
Crazy to wake up to this.
Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney
& Michael B. Jordan, their investor group Maximum Effort, along with
Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners have just purchased a 24% stake in Alpine F1 Team. Spend is roughly $218M, while valuing the team around $900M https://t.co/tRBRVWFUQC— Tim Hauraney (@timhauraney) June 26, 2023
The investment comes via Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Investments. The investment group was part of a larger group that purchased a stake worth nearly $220 million in the French team.
“The Investor Group brings together a unique combination of expertise. Otro Capital and RedBird Capital Partners, with the brand building skills of Maximum Effort Investments (led by Ryan Reynolds) will bring successful sports & media experience and operational expertise in building high-growth companies,” Alpine said in a statement.
Alpine, formerly Renault, is one of the oldest and most successful teams on the Formula 1 grid today.
It entered the sport in 1981 as Toleman and was later sold to the Benetton Group. As Benetton, the team thrived, winning the Formula 1 Drivers Championship in 1994 and 1995 with seven-time series champion Michael Schumacher.
Renault purchased the team prior to the 2000 season and had similar levels of success. Renault won both the Drivers’ Championship and Constructors’ Championship in both 2005 and 2006. Star Spanish driver Fernando Alonso narrowly beat Kimi Raikkonen to the title in 2005 and Schumacher to the title in 2006.
But the team has struggled to reach the same levels of success since and currently fifth out of 10 teams in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Standings.
Reynolds, McElhenney and Jordan will undoubtedly hope to turn that around in the years to come.