Contrary to media reports, Flavio Briatore claims it is Mercedes, not Toto Wolff, that is looking to buy a stake in Alpine.

Like the proverbial London bus, you wait for someone to buy into your F1 team then suddenly two potential bidders turn up.

As previously reported, Christian Horner is part of a consortium looking to buy a stake in the French team, acquiring the 24% owned by Otro Capital, which, along with its partners RedBird Capital Partners and Maximum Effort Investments - collectively known as the Investor Group - bought a 24% equity stake in Alpine in mid-2023. The €200m (£173m) deal effectively valuing the team at $900m (£660m).

However, in recent days there has been talk of Toto Wolff making a bid for the stake in the team which is now valued at around $3bn.

Speaking in China however, Flavio Briatore insists that it is Mercedes and not Wolff expressing interest.

"Every day is a new situation," the Italian told reporters. "I don't know what is the latest one, but what I say is that I know it's a negotiation with Mercedes, not with Toto, with Mercedes, and we see.

"In this moment we have three or four potential buyers," he added. "Don't forget, we're talking about the Otro shares, nothing to do with Alpine. It's the share owned by this hedge fund, it's called Otro, American fund. They want to sell the 24 per cent and a few candidates are ready to do the deal."

Asked if he was interested in making his own bid, some media outlets having previously linked him with Horner and Bernie Ecclestone, Briatore was adamant.

"No, no, no, no!" he said. "Just looking. I'm just looking what's going on and just watching what's going on. For us, we have no communication with Toto in this moment. So, if somebody buys the shares, we are very happy."

Asked, should Mercedes make a successful bid, if he could guarantee that the German manufacturer would have no influence on how the French team operated, or, more importantly, voted in areas like the F1 Commission, Briatore replied: "Red Bull already is a pioneer in this in the last ten years or fifteen years, whatever.

"Like I tell you, Mercedes, one group is looking to buy Otro's 24 per cent. Normally one company, 75 per cent decide and the 25 per cent is a passenger, and this is the reality."

Check out our Friday gallery from Shanghai here.