Formula 1 is practically synonymous with luxury, so it only makes sense that one of the most well-known luxury brands on the planet wants in on the sport.
On Wednesday, it was announced that starting in 2027, Gucci will take over as the title sponsor of the Alpine Formula 1 team.
The brand will take over from Alpine’s current title sponsor, European water treatment company BWT, with the official name becoming “Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team.”
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The team will take on Gucci’s color scheme — red, green, black and gold — while ditching the Alpine brand’s blue and BWT’s pink.
It may sound weird for a clothing brand like Gucci to get in on F1, but remember, this is a sport where one of the best teams of the last 20 years is owned by an energy drink company.
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Plus, this isn’t unprecedented. From 2020 to 2023, Red Bull’s second team, currently known as Racing Bulls, competed under the name Scuderia AlphaTauri to promote Red Bull’s clothing brand.
But what’s wild is that if you trace Alpine’s lineage, this is not even the first time the team has been named after a clothing company.
Alpine is sometimes referred to as Team Enstone because they’ve changed names… a lot.
Before they were Alpine, they were Renault. Before that, they were Lotus, and before that, they were Renault (yes, for the first time).
From 1986 to 2001, they were known as Benetton, a fashion label that took over the team after previously sponsoring it when it was known as Toleman.
Confusing? Yes.
But Benetton was actually a great team, and Michael Schumacher won a pair of championships with them in the mid-1990s.
So, can they maybe do something similar with Gucci?
Well, Alpine has been one of the most surprising teams in 2026. They had been at the back of the pack for the last few years, largely due to the fact that they were stuck with a very underpowered Renault power unit.
That’s gone, and in its place is a much more powerful Mercedes engine, and suddenly, Alpine is currently a very solid P5 in the constructors’ standings. Both drivers, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, have had a strong start to the season.
There’s no question that they’re on the upswing, which means that Gucci might be getting in at the right time.
Of course, as improved as the team is, they’re still quite a way off from competing for race wins every week, and certainly from winning championships.
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