No new Alfa Romeo sports cars, unless...

Anyone holding out hope that Alfa Romeo is going to launch a new two-seater sports car or a reborn Spider any day now will have to keep that flame burning for a bit longer.

In an exclusive interview with Auto Express, Alfa’s marketing boss Cristiano Fiorio revealed the brand needs to prove it can sell mainstream models in significant numbers before being able to even consider making a successor to the lightweight 4C sports car that was axed in 2019. 

This is because “huge investment” has gone into creating the all-new Alfa Romeo Stelvio that’s due to be unveiled later this year, and the next-generation Alfa Romeo Guilia that’s coming in 2026. Both will sit on a brand-new architecture and will be offered with the choice of hybrid or pure-electric power.

Fiorio explained to us: “Any person working in Alfa Romeo would tell you that at a certain point in time we would like to have another reachable performance car. But I always believe that before going into dreams, like when people said why don’t you go back into motorsport, we have to deliver.

“Alfa Romeo doesn't have the means of Audi or Mercedes or Porsche because of the volumes that we generate, and we have to do things step-by-step. So in the last three, four years we have been very diligent in putting in order again the accountability of the brand, in terms of results. 

“Why have we been doing this? If we want to fulfil the dreams of you, our fans and our clients, we need to be able to produce results, because at a certain point if a brand doesn't make money it will not be able to sustain its future, and Alfa Romeo has always had a problem of not delivering on promises.”

He continued: “We have to generate credibility, so do one model every year and prove that we are able to execute that, make it profitable and make numbers which are acceptable for the investment. Once we have a track record on that, then we can dream.”

Alfa Romeo product manager Mario Lamagna echoed this point, as he told us: “Portfolio is key. If you build a portfolio, then you can do very interesting things.”

Lamagna added: “We see a bright future for Alfa, and things will come. We are a sports car brand, 100 per cent, so let's continue on our path and not hurry it too much. Otherwise, we focus on “we are doing a Spider!”, and then miss all the other opportunities on the market.”

Would a new Alfa Romeo sports car be electric?

While Alpine, Audi, Caterham, Porsche and Lotus are all working on pure-electric sports cars, if Alfa Romeo does get the green light, the direction it could choose has yet to be decided.

We asked Lamagna if a new Alfa sports car would have to be electric, to which he replied: “We are evaluating the best options. There are many choices on the table, so flexibility is key.”

We were also curious to know his thoughts on electric cars, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which have used some virtual trickery to create a more engaging driving experience. 

“Personally, I'm not in favour of, I would say, in faking an experience like that,” Lamagna responded. “ In Alfa, we believe in a true experience. So, regardless of the fact that you have a sound or not, we want to do something that has to be real, people have to fall in love anyway with the car, even if it is electric, it doesn't matter. 

“Honestly, I don't see that as a big thing for our customers. But again, we need to be committed to the experience somehow.”

How the £1.7 million Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale got made

Marketing boss Fiorio described Alfa Romeo to us as “a very sporty brand, but always sort of reachable”, so we asked him how that computes with the company’s latest halo product: the 33 Stradale, just 33 of which are being built and each costing around £1.7million.

He told us the 33 Stradale was not just a “manifesto” for the brand, it was a project born from motorsport and “was done by a crazy bunch of people that said, okay, let's go against the odds”.

He continued: “It was a project managed outside the normal, day-to-day business of the company. The agreement was to not impact the brand’s day-to-day activities, because if it did that then we wouldn’t do it.

“But if you want to do it, you want to dream or play, prove yourself that you are not impacting anything and that you can self-sustain that business on the pinnacle of the brand, then we are okay in supporting you.”

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