When Flavio Briatore helped steer Benetton, a clothing company, to back-to-back Formula 1 world championships in 1994 and 1995, it felt like a novelty. Three decades later, Briatore is back in the paddock, this time as Alpine’s executive advisor, and he’s about to do something arguably even more audacious: bringing Gucci to the Formula 1 grid as a full title sponsor.
Alpine confirmed the partnership last week, with the team set to race as the Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team from the start of the 2027 season. It marks the end of a five-year relationship with Austrian water treatment company BWT, whose distinctive pink has coloured Alpine’s livery since 2022, and the beginning of something the sport has genuinely never seen before. No luxury fashion house has ever served as an F1 team’s title partner. Gucci will be the first.
The scale of the deal reflects the seriousness of the commitment. Estimated to be worth between $50 and $60 million per season over a multi-year term, the total value is reported to exceed $150 million, making it one of the largest sponsorship agreements in recent F1 history. Gucci isn’t just putting its logo on a car either. The brand has created an entirely new division called Gucci Racing, described as a “business and experiential platform” built around the values of performance, precision, and excellence. A new black and gold logo featuring the brand’s iconic G motif has already been unveiled, and it will define the look of Alpine’s 2027 car. The familiar pink is gone.
The timing is deliberate. Alpine has had its best start to a season ever in 2026, already surpassing its total points tally from all of last year after just five rounds. The team is no longer a backmarker looking for a lifeline. It’s a growing operation with momentum, and Gucci clearly wants to be associated with that trajectory rather than arrive as a rescuer.
There’s also a sharp corporate logic underpinning the deal. Former Renault CEO Luca de Meo, who was deeply involved with Alpine during his tenure, took over as CEO of Kering, Gucci’s parent company, in late 2025. The relationship between the two organisations was already warm, and this partnership is in many ways its natural conclusion.
Nor is Gucci arriving in isolation. Formula 1 has been quietly cultivating a relationship with the luxury fashion world for some time now, and fellow LVMH stablemate Louis Vuitton has become an increasingly prominent presence in the sport, having become the official title partner of the Australian Grand Prix. The direction of travel is clear: the worlds of high fashion and high-speed motorsport are converging, and the brands leading that charge are among the most recognisable on the planet.
Gucci CEO Francesca Bellettini framed the announcement in expansive terms, describing F1 as a “unique convergence of performance, culture, and global reach.” That language tells you exactly what Gucci is buying: not just sponsorship real estate, but access to a sport that has transformed itself into a global lifestyle phenomenon, with an audience that skews younger and more international than almost any other major sporting property.
Whether it translates into wins on track, only time will tell. But as a statement of intent from both a fashion house rewriting its identity and a racing team betting on itself, it’s one of the most compelling stories of the 2026 season.
