It is claimed that in his quest to buy into Alpine, Christian Horner is in talks with MSP Sports Capital, which invested £185m into McLaren Racing in 2020.

The US based investment group has strategic stakes in properties in global media rights, distribution technologies, content creation, sponsorship, esports, betting, and data. its principals being experienced, well-known figures in the sports industry, as owners, investors and operators in Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), ESPN, and sports management.

The original transaction saw MSP acquire a significant minority shareholding in McLaren Racing, with McLaren Group remaining the majority shareholder. The initial investment of £185m gave it an initial 15% stake and at the time valued McLaren Racing at £560m.

Of course, all this came at a time the Woking outfit was struggling, desperate to raise cash in the wake of a number of factors, not least the pandemic, which had hit sales of the company's supercars and also seen a reduction in the prize money dividend from F1.

Facing possible insolvency, along with the MSP buy-in, the Woking company agreed a £150m loan with the National Bank of Bahrain and subsequently sold its iconic HQ to American real estate giant Global Lease Network and part of its historic car collection.

Late last year, McLaren - and indeed F1's fortunes having completely turned around - Dhabi's CYVN Holdings completed its acquisition of McLaren's Automotive business and a non-controlling stake in its racing business, and while no details of the financial sums involved were been mentioned, sections of the business media claimed the deal valued the F1 team at more than £3bn.

The deal saw the purchase of all shares held by MSP Sports Capital, together with funds managed by O'Connor Capital Solutions, Ares Sports, Media and Entertainment funds and Caspian Funds.

Though neither Horner or MSP are commenting on reports that they are in talks, a partnership would make sense, for while the Briton has an impressive CV following his success with Red Bull, investors remain convinced that there remains further financial growth within the sport.