Gucci launches racing platform with Alpine title partnership for 2027 Formula 1

Gucci did not just buy a logo placement. It took a seat at the table of Formula 1 commerce, turning Alpine into the Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team from the start of the 2027 FIA Formula One World Championship and using the deal to build a new business and experiential platform around the paddock.

That is the real story here. Alpine said the partnership is the first time a luxury fashion house has served as title partner of a Formula 1 team, and Formula 1 itself called Gucci the first luxury fashion house to hold that role in the sport. In other words, this is less about a seasonal sponsorship and more about Gucci trying to own a lane where luxury, speed and constant visibility overlap.

The switch also rewires Alpine’s image. Reports say BWT has held the title-sponsor role since 2022, and the team is expected to move away from its current blue-and-pink look in favor of Gucci’s red-and-green palette. For a team based in Enstone, England, that is not just a paint job. It is a full visual reset, one that pushes the brand into a sport where the car is a moving billboard and the garage, podium and hospitality suite all feed the same global feed.

Francesca Bellettini, Gucci’s president and chief executive, framed it as a bigger cultural play, saying the partnership “writes a new chapter” and that Formula 1 brings together performance, culture and global reach. She added that “there is much more to come.” That language matters because Gucci Racing sounds built for more than race weekends. It reads like a platform for product, events, guest experiences and the kind of male-skewing audience luxury houses have chased for years without always saying so out loud.

The money on the table underscores the ambition. Reported financial terms were not officially disclosed, but one motorsport estimate put the multiyear deal at about $55 million to $60 million annually. That kind of spend only makes sense if the brand sees returns in visibility, desirability and the kind of year-round cultural presence that fashion shows, red carpets and ad campaigns struggle to sustain on their own.

Gucci is arriving just as luxury houses are treating Formula 1 as a serious business vertical. Formula 1 and LVMH announced a 10-year global partnership beginning in 2025, with Louis Vuitton already folded into the sport as an official partner. The pattern is obvious: luxury is no longer borrowing motorsport for gloss. It is using motorsport to sell access, narrative and status at scale. Gucci Racing is the latest and most aggressive version of that play.