Eddie Jordan expresses scepticism over Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s F1 deal

acing legend Eddie Jordan has expressed scepticism over the €200m price on a deal which will see investors including actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney take a 24% stake in the Apline Racing team.

He told GB News: “I don’t believe it. First of all, I won’t use the word fake news, but I mean, there’s absolutely no way from an accounting point of view – the financial model doesn’t stack up. That’s number one.

“It’s all very nice and very sexy to put these figures on things but they need to be supported and they need to be authorised. I noticed that there hasn’t been any reaction from Alpine or indeed from Renault which is a major shareholder

“And I find that in itself kind of strange to value something of that level at a gross value of £700 million pounds. It’s preposterous. It’s ridiculous.”

In an interview with Mark Longhurst and Pip Tomson during The Live Desk on GB News, he continued: “The two people that you’ve mentioned, hugely big stars and a huge addition particularly for the American market, which is probably where Renault was trying to look forward to.

“They’re not probably putting a lot of their own money into this. I would say that the real people behind it in the States who have taken this investment, they’re using these two stars.

“Formula One is going through the roof and in terms of the sport, I think it’s behind football of course, but there’s actually only 10 franchises, whereas in football you’ve got 30 to 40 in each country throughout the world.

“So you multiply all of that out and then ask yourself, what is the value of having something in a niche market like Formula One?”

He added: “Why is the team not called Renault? Are they hiding behind something?”