Alfa Romeo

Before World War II, Alfa Romeo was a dominant presence in Grand Prix motor racing. The P2 and the P3 consistently achieved victories until 1934, when the German Mercedes and Auto Union cars emerged and posed serious competition. By this time Alfa Romeo had withdrawn temporarily as a manufacturer and was run by Enzo Ferrari and his Scuderia Ferrari team from 1929 to 1938; from 1934 to the start of the war Alfa often experienced a scarcity of victories, its cars appearing underdeveloped compared to the technically advanced Mercedes. After Alfa Corse retrieved control of the brand from Ferrari, it built the Alfa Romeo 158 for the 1938 season. The 158, after subsequent updates, became a dominant force, used at Grands Prix from 1946 to 1948 and dominating the 1947 and 1948 seasons; Alfa withdrew from racing in 1949 following the deaths of Jean-Pierre Wimille, Achille Varzi, and Carlo Felice Trossi.

Alfa Romeo experienced astounding success in the first two seasons of the Formula One World Championship. In 1950, Giuseppe Farina won the inaugural World Drivers' Championship in a supercharged 158. The success was replicated the following year by Juan Manuel Fangio driving an Alfetta 159, an evolution of the 158 with a two-stage compressor. The Alfetta's engines were extremely powerful for their capacity: in 1951 the 159 engine produced around 420 bhp (310 kW), but at a fuel consumption of 125 to 175 litres per 100 km. The team won the two World Drivers' Championships on a very limited budget, using only nine engine blocks built before the war. In 1952, facing increased competition from Ferrari, the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale — the public holding company controlling Alfa Romeo — withdrew the team after the Italian government refused to fund the design of a new car to replace the 13-year-old model.

In the mid-1970s, Alfa engineer Carlo Chiti designed a flat-12 engine to replace the T33 V8; it achieved success in taking the 1975 World Sportscar Championship. Bernie Ecclestone, then owner of the Brabham Formula One team, persuaded Alfa Romeo to supply the engine free for the 1976 season. The engines produced a claimed 510 bhp against the 465 bhp of the ubiquitous Cosworth DFV, but the 12-cylinder unit was heavier and used more oil and water, was difficult to package — they had to be removed to change the spark plugs — and required four separate fuel tanks. While the Brabham BT45 (1976) was unsuccessful, Gordon Murray's increasingly adventurous designs, like the BT46 which won the 1978 Swedish and Italian Grands Prix and finished third in the Constructors' standings, were partly a response to packaging the bulky unit. Across the 1977 and 1978 World Championships, Brabham-Alfa Romeo cars took 14 podium finishes, including two race victories for Niki Lauda. When ground effect became critical in 1978, Alfa produced a narrower V12 in three months for 1979, but it proved unreliable and fuel-inefficient.

Alfa Romeo's competition department, Autodelta, returned as the works team. Development of an own car, led by Autodelta, started in 1977 and produced the Alfa Romeo 177, which debuted at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix; the Brabham partnership ended before the close of 1979 as Brabham switched back to Cosworth DFV engines. This second period was never truly successful and was hampered by reliability problems. In 1980, driver Patrick Depailler died in a crash while testing for the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring; at the United States Grand Prix that year, Bruno Giacomelli took pole with the Alfa Romeo 179 and led 32 laps before electrical trouble. Giacomelli's third place at the 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix was the team's best of that year. After a restructuring, the team's operations and car design were outsourced to Euroracing in 1982, with engines still supplied by Autodelta; Andrea de Cesaris took pole at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West and third at the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix in the Alfa Romeo 182. The best season was 1983, when the team switched to the turbocharged 890T V8 and finished sixth in the Constructors' Championship, largely on two second places by de Cesaris in the 183T.

A 220-litre fuel limit with no refuelling, imposed by the FIA for 1984, plus stronger BMW and TAG engines, drove the decline of the Euroracing Alfa Romeo team; the thirsty 890T forced drivers to use a turbo-pressure knob to reduce power. Riccardo Patrese's third place at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix was the team's last podium, with Patrese and Eddie Cheever often failing to finish in 1984 and 1985 due to running out of fuel. The 1985 Alfa Romeo 185T was so uncompetitive that the 1984 car was recalled mid-season as the updated 184TB; Patrese later described the 185T as the worst car he had ever driven. Alfa Romeo pulled out as a constructor at the end of 1985.

Alfa supplied expertise and engines to the small Italian Osella team from 1983 to 1987. For the second half of 1983, the 182's normally aspirated engine was deployed on the Osella FA1E. From 1984 to 1987, Alfa Romeo V8 turbo engines were used on Osella cars beginning with the FA1F, achieving two fifth places (1984 Dallas and Italian Grands Prix) as the best results. By 1988 Alfa, tired of the negative publicity, prohibited use of its name, so the engine was simply dubbed "Osella V8"; the relationship ended that season, closing Alfa's involvement for about three decades. A 1987 deal to supply the Alfa Romeo 415T four-cylinder turbo to Ligier, tested in a Ligier JS29 by René Arnoux, was cancelled when Fiat took control of Alfa Romeo, forcing Ligier onto Megatron engines.

During the 1960s, several minor teams used Alfa Romeo straight-4 engines in cars such as the LDS Mk1/Mk2, the Cooper T53, and the De Tomaso F1, none scoring a Championship point. In 1962 Peter de Klerk built the Alfa Special around an Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.5-litre straight-4 for the South African Formula One Championship, finishing 10th at the 1965 South African Grand Prix. Alfa briefly returned in 1970–1971 with a V8 based on the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 sportscar unit, entrusted mainly to Andrea de Adamich in a McLaren (1970) and a March (1971); none of these combinations scored championship points. In 1985 Alfa Romeo began a V10 project anticipating the turbo ban — the first modern V10 Formula One engine, soon followed by Honda and Renault. The Alfa Romeo V1035, designed by Pino D'Agostino, reached slightly over 600 bhp at 12,500 rpm, but after the Ligier co-operation was cancelled it went to the 164 Pro Car project and never raced in F1.

The Alfa Romeo logo returned in 2015 as branding on the Scuderia Ferrari cars, beginning with the SF15-T and continuing through 2018. On 29 November 2017 it was announced Alfa Romeo would be title sponsor of the Sauber team from 2018 as Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team, using customer Ferrari power units. On 1 February 2019 the team was renamed Alfa Romeo Racing, with ownership, Swiss racing licence, and management unchanged; Alfa Romeo had no technical involvement, describing the relationship as a commercial partnership. The 2019 C38 was driven by 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi; Giovinazzi led four laps of the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix — the first Alfa Romeo lap led since de Cesaris at the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix — and the team's best result came in Brazil with fourth and fifth, finishing the year eighth with 57 points.

A PKN Orlen title arrangement renamed the team Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen (2020–2021) and Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen (2022); the team finished eighth in 2020 (8 points) and ninth in 2021 (13 points), after which Räikkönen retired and Giovinazzi left for Formula E. For 2022 the team signed Valtteri Bottas and Formula 2 graduate Zhou Guanyu, securing a best partnership finish of sixth in the Constructors' Championship. A January 2023 Stake title deal renamed the team Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake, with a Kick partnership branding the team Alfa Romeo F1 Team Kick where gambling advertising was restricted; a "disruptive livery" ran at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix. Alfa Romeo pulled out of Formula One at the end of 2023 and ended its partnership with Sauber, which is set to launch a works partnership with Audi in 2026.

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