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BWT Alpine Formula One Team made one of the most resounding announcements in recent Formula 1 history on Wednesday, 27 May 2026: Gucci, the Florentine Maison founded in 1921 and crown jewel of the Kering group, will become the team’s title partner from the 2027 season onwards. The team will henceforth compete under the name Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team, carrying the fashion house’s colours alongside Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto.
The weight of this announcement deserves to be appreciated in full. For the first time in the sport’s history, a luxury fashion house has stepped into the role of title sponsor for a team competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship. This is far more than a branding exercise: it marks the birth of Gucci Racing, a strategic and experiential platform built around values that these two worlds share — performance, precision, discipline, excellence.
A dedicated logo, combining Gucci’s iconic double G with the Gucci Racing logotype, will seal that shared visual identity.
BWT Alpine Formula One Team: Where Two Stories Converge (Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team)
It would be difficult to call this a coincidence. Behind this alliance lies a remarkable managerial continuity. Luca de Meo — the architect of the Renault-to-Alpine rebrand in 2021, the man who committed the team to Formula 1 indefinitely and brought Flavio Briatore back as executive advisor in the summer of 2024 — has been CEO of Kering, Gucci’s parent group, since September 2025.
Briatore himself, whose name remains inseparable from the Benetton years — those glorious seasons of Michael Schumacher’s 1994-95 titles, when fashion and motorsport looked each other squarely in the eye — sees in this partnership a natural resurgence of everything he has always believed possible.
The Enstone outfit, founded in its current form in 1992 and the direct heir of the Renault F1 Team’s legacy, is enjoying its best start to a season in terms of points scored in many years in 2026. Firmly anchored in fifth place in the constructors’ championship, the Alpine A526 — powered by Mercedes engines for the first time this season — embodies an upward trajectory that clearly weighed heavily in Gucci’s decision. You don’t align yourself with a team in disarray: you choose a partner in motion.
The commercial trail had been there for weeks. The anticipated departure of BWT — the Austrian title partner since the 2022 season whose five-year contract expires at the end of this year — had left both a symbolic and financial vacancy.
That instantly recognisable bubblegum pink livery will give way to an entirely reimagined visual identity. What that new face will look like precisely, the world will find out at the dawn of 2027.
A Global Ambition That Goes Far Beyond the Circuit
This partnership will not be reduced to a logo on a front wing. Francesca Bellettini, CEO of Gucci, made clear that this alliance is rooted in a long-term vision — driven by content, products, premium client experiences and exclusive activations. Formula 1, which now reaches more than 1.5 billion people each season according to figures cited in the official statement, represents in her eyes a platform for desirability and cultural relevance that very few sporting arenas can match.
For Alpine, the equation is equally straightforward. At a moment when the team is consolidating its technical structure — including the recent appointment of Jason Somerville to the technical leadership — and working to cement its place in the competitive order, attracting a partner of Gucci’s calibre sends an unambiguous message to the entire paddock. A deal of this nature, estimated at several tens of millions of euros per season based on the figures that had been circulating before the official announcement, meaningfully reshapes the financial landscape for a midfield team.
Flavio Briatore, in his statement, recalled that the Enstone factory had already shown that fashion could triumph in Formula 1 — a transparent nod to the Benetton era, when a team dressed by a fashion giant dominated the sport. History is repeating itself, only at a very different scale.
Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto will carry these new colours from the very first laps of the 2027 season. For the Frenchman, a Grand Prix winner, as much as for the Argentine, one of the sport’s most exciting revelations over the past two seasons, this partnership also provides a personal showcase on the most premium markets on the planet.
Formula 1 ceased long ago to be merely a sport: it has become a cultural industry in its own right. And BWT Alpine Formula One Team — tomorrow Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team — is now one of its most glamorous protagonists.
They Said
Francesca Bellettini, CEO of Gucci:
“This partnership with Alpine Formula One Team opens a new chapter: Gucci becomes the first luxury fashion House to become a title partner in Formula 1. This reflects our ambition for the brand and the role we want Gucci to play.
Formula 1 today represents a unique convergence of performance, culture and global reach. Alpine Formula One Team is the ideal partner to bring this vision to life. Gucci Racing is more than a presence on the grid: it is the expression of our identity and our ambition for the brand. And this is only the beginning. We thank Alpine and Renault Group for sharing this ambition with us.”
Luca de Meo, CEO of Kering:
“Formula 1 has far transcended the boundaries of sport to become one of the most powerful premium content platforms in the world, reaching more than 1.5 billion people each season and engaging an audience that is growing fast, increasingly young and increasingly female.
A true space for creativity, the pursuit of excellence and human performance, we see it as a unique platform for a luxury brand — one that allows us to push boundaries, forge meaningful connections and build lasting value and desirability, while generating measurable and enduring impact.”
François Provost, CEO of Renault Group:
“Formula 1 is one of the most dynamic and compelling platforms in global sport. For Renault Group, a historic constructor in Formula 1, it is a powerful lever to support Alpine’s ambition: to grow its awareness, its appeal and its influence across all markets, while reaching new audiences and younger generations.
We are delighted to pursue this collaboration with Kering and to embark on this partnership with Gucci from 2027.”
Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor, Alpine Formula One Team:
“Welcoming a brand as prestigious and of the calibre of Gucci as title partner of Alpine Formula One Team in Formula 1 is an immense source of pride. I am also hugely excited about the prospects this partnership with Gucci opens up and about the great things we can achieve together on a global scale.
The Enstone team has always known how to stand out and has already proven that fashion can triumph in Formula 1. With performances clearly improving on track and the best start to a season in the team’s history in terms of points scored, this new collaboration with Gucci reflects the positive momentum driving the team forward. I would like to thank Luca [de Meo] and Francesca [Bellettini] for their trust and their commitment to this project, and for making this partnership a reality.”
Source: BWT Alpine Formula One Team
