Italian fashion house Gucci will be the title sponsor of the Alpine team from the 2027 season, which will change its name and image as a result. From 2027, the full name of this team will be “Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team”. The contract is long-term and lucrative.
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This is the first very positive financial news for the Alpine team in several years. In terms of the number of sponsors and the value of their contracts, the French team has performed very averagely in F1 in recent years. Due to poorer financial results, many disruptions, and earlier the departure of media-friendly drivers, Alpine struggled moderately with attracting sponsors. The agreement announced today with the fashion house Gucci radically changes that. The exact value has not been disclosed, but the media mention an amount of 50 million euros per year. This will definitely be the biggest deal for Alpine, and also much larger than with the previous title sponsor BWT. We have no information whether this means the definitive departure of BWT from Alpine or if they will remain in the team under a smaller contract.
The Alpine agreement with Gucci is interesting for many reasons. The fashion house has entered sports sponsorship on such a scale for the first time. Gucci currently belongs to the Kering holding, which includes many luxury brands from various fields. Their rival is the LVMH group, which from 2025 is the largest sponsor of the entire F1 and promotes several of its brands there. A typical F1 phenomenon of imitation has occurred. If a company from a new industry appears as a sponsor and succeeds, its rivals do not want to be left behind and also appear. The current CEO of the Kering holding is the well-known Luca de Meo, who was quite recently the president of the Renault group. He led the reactivation of the Alpine brand and the name change of the F1 team from Renault to Alpine. Now he is the head of the main sponsor of this team. For this reason, bringing about this agreement was logical for all parties.
The Alpine team will change colors from 2027. The statement says they will use Gucci brand colors. We can expect red, green, and black, similar to the sheet that covered the car at the contract presentation. The Gucci logo itself is most often presented as gold or black. We can expect a very elegant car, Gucci will care a lot about this.
Importantly, the agreement with the Alpine team means the creation of “Gucci Racing”. This is a new business platform that Gucci will use for various purposes. Gucci wants to enter new markets through the agreement with Alpine. This is not a new motorsport project, but a classic business solution.
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I hope that BWT will not definitively leave Formula 1, as it introduced unique colors to the teams it sponsored. I remind you that the Austrian company BWT debuted in F1 in the 2017 season as a sponsor of the Force India team. It remained the main sponsor of this team when it was bought by Lawrence Stroll and changed to Racing Point. The contract ended with the end of the 2021 season. From 2017 to 2020, the cars of this team were pink due to BWT sponsorship. In 2021, the team changed its name to Aston Martin, BWT remained a sponsor but smaller and had only very small pink accents on the green cars. Since 2022, under a five-year contract, BWT has been the title sponsor of the Alpine team. BWT is also present in other motorsport series.
Title sponsors of Formula 1 teams
In the 2026 season, ten F1 teams have title sponsors. One of them even has two such partners. The only exception is the youngest team Cadillac, which initially focused on promoting its main brand. In the future, if they want, they should acquire a title sponsor. According to media information, the highest such contracts are worth 100 million dollars per year. The smallest, in my opinion, about 25-30 million $. Five years ago, one could become a title sponsor of the weakest teams for 15-20 million $, but currently the rates have risen significantly.
Here are the current full names of F1 teams. I have bolded the names of title sponsors. In the case of the Alpine team, I provided the current and next year’s name.
McLaren Mastercard F1 Team
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team
Oracle Red Bull Racing
Scuderia Ferrari HP
Atlassian Williams F1 Team
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team
Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team
TGR Haas F1 Team
Audi Revolut F1 Team
BWT Alpine Formula One Team / Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team
Cadillac Formula 1 Team
Issues related to sponsorship in Formula 1 often appear on the blog in various articles, you can find them at this link.
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