An Islero is a Spanish fighting bull, but the name was used by Lamborghini for one of its models in the 1960s. This is probably just a coincidence because it is not very likely that Alfa Romeo would be sponsoring a team with links to Lamborghini, which is owned by the Volkswagen Group, although Lamborghini boss Stefano Domenicali (formelry the boss of the Ferrari F1 team) is very keen to get the Italian supercar brand into F1 in 2021.
The board of Islero consists Vasseur, Picci, Rausing and four lawyers. The first of these is Italian Alessandro Alunni Bravi, who works closely with Vasseur and was once the team principal of the Trident GP2 team. More recently he has been involved in looking after drivers who are managed by Vasseur. The three other lawyers are not known in motor racing. The declared purpose of Islero is to administer shareholdings in other businesses and it is logical to assume that it is the new holding company of Sauber, thus taking Longbow out of the picture, which would make sense given that there were rumours that the other Rausings were not too keen on the Sauber investment. Replacing Longbow with Islero thus makes sense and having Vasseur, Picci and Rausing on the board is logical. No-one knows Islero and so Rausing's desire for privacy was not really an issue.
The board of Islero consists Vasseur, Picci, Rausing and four lawyers. The first of these is Italian Alessandro Alunni Bravi, who works closely with Vasseur and was once the team principal of the Trident GP2 team. More recently he has been involved in looking after drivers who are managed by Vasseur. The three other lawyers are not known in motor racing. The declared purpose of Islero is to administer shareholdings in other businesses and it is logical to assume that it is the new holding company of Sauber, thus taking Longbow out of the picture, which would make sense given that there were rumours that the other Rausings were not too keen on the Sauber investment. Replacing Longbow with Islero thus makes sense and having Vasseur, Picci and Rausing on the board is logical. No-one knows Islero and so Rausing's desire for privacy was not really an issue.
The key question however is who else is involved and the key to this comes with the lawyers, who are most likely acting a nominees for the real investors. The president of Islero is Liechtenstein's Ernst Walch, who is foreign minister of the tiny principality, which is famed for being a place where the very rich put their money. Maurus Winzap is a tax lawyer but the interesting person in this case is Swiss lawyer Shelby du Pasquier. His connections may explain what is going on. In addition to his legal business, he has been a board member of the Geneva-based verification and certification company SGS SA for the last 10 years.
The chairman of SGS is none other than Sergio Marchionne, who ran the firm from 2002 to 2004 before he was taken on by Fiat. He remains the chairman of the board and thus has worked for more than 10 years with du Pasquier. One can suggest, therefore, that Marchionne is probably the motive force behind Islero, with du Pasquier looking after his interests until the time is right.
Thus it could be that Sauber is already under Fiat control but any announcement will only come after the 2021 rules are settled and Alfa Romeo confirms that it is entering F1 in a more active way...
Source:JSBN
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