PARIS, May 27 (Reuters) – Gucci will become title partner to Renault’s Alpine Formula One team from the 2027 season, the Italian luxury brand said on Wednesday.
Alpine, whose current title partner is Austrian water treatment company BWT, will race as Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team.
The announcement is Gucci’s latest in a string of high-profile moves to boost its visibility and revive sales after years of decline. Earlier this month, it staged a major runway show in New York’s Times Square to grab global attention.
The collaboration will be part of Gucci Racing, which Gucci says will be “a new business and experiential platform built around the values of performance, precision, discipline, and excellence at the intersection of luxury and sport.”
For luxury brands confronted with falling global demand for their prized handbags and dresses, exclusive events, such as Formula One racing, have emerged as a major new playing field.
In 2024, Liberty Media-owned Formula One clinched a multi-year deal with French luxury giant LVMH valued at over $100 million.
The Gucci deal, for which no financials were disclosed, will make the brand the first luxury fashion house to lend its name to a racing team, the company said.
The tie-up also brings the brand closer to the world of Luca de Meo, the CEO of Gucci’s French parent company Kering, who previously served as Renault’s chief executive.
“Formula One has evolved far beyond sport to become one of the world’s most powerful premium content platforms, reaching over 1.5 billion people each season and inspiring a rapidly expanding, younger and increasingly female audience,” said de Meo.
“We see it as a unique platform for a luxury brand to push boundaries, spark meaningful connections and build long-term value and brand desirability, while delivering measurable and lasting impact.”
Alpine’s team is run by Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, a friend and longtime ally of de Meo, who first entered Formula One with the Benetton team in 1990.
Briatore was described early in his F1 career as a “T-shirt salesman” but is now known for far more expensive tastes as an operator of high-end nightclubs and restaurants and owner of the “Billionaire” brand.
Briatore said he was incredibly proud of the deal.
“Not only that, but I am also excited about the possibilities the partnership with Gucci brings and the great things we can achieve together at a global level,” he said.
“The Enstone Team has a history of doing things differently to others and has previously shown that fashion can finish first in Formula One,” Briatore said, referring to Alpine’s Oxfordshire base.
As Benetton, the team won titles with Michael Schumacher in 1994 and 1995 and then as Renault with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.
Alpine were last of all the teams in 2025 but have started 2026 strongly and are fifth of 11 after five rounds.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Paris and Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Makini Brice and Tomasz Janowski)
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