There has been some recent chatter about Alfa Romeo joining the sports car ranks here in the USA with an LMP2 team for 2017. But now CEO Sergio Marchionne is dropping hints that the automaker could actually be going back to F1.

At a meeting in Maranello, Fiat-Chrysler CEO (and Ferrari President)Sergio Marchionne said that Fiat could bring Alfa Romeo back to Formula One as a competitor to Ferrari, which seems like an absolutely loopy idea. Right now, Ferrari's cars have Alfa Romeo branding on them, as seen above.

However, it also wasn't the first time this idea has come up. When Red Bull was in discussions with Ferrari about using their engines in 2016, the idea of branding those engines as Alfa Romeo units was apparently one of their big ideas. Of course, Red Bull stuck with Renault engines that will be branded as TAG Heuers.

That doesn't close the door for an Alfa return, but it does make it a highly costly venture, since the budget for an F1 team is ludicrous. Having two well funded teams would be a tall order for Fiat, especially because having Alfa circulating at the back of the pack wouldn't be the best way to build the brand.

Instead, we'd expect that Fiat will rebrand one of the other Ferrari-powered teams as powered by Alfa Romeo, like Haas or Scuderia Toro Rosso.

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