ALPINE MAY GET A NEW NAME IN 2027 DUE TO A MEGA DEAL WITH GUCCI

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The Alpine Formula 1 team will likely get a new name starting from the 2027 season. GPblog understands that luxury brand Gucci is the intended new title sponsor of the French team. The new name would then be Gucci Alpine Formula One Team.

BWT Alpine Formula One Team is currently the official and full name of the team of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto. BWT is expected to end its title sponsorship of the French outfit after the current season, which opens the door for a new naming partner.

That partner appears to be Gucci, part of the luxury group Kering. Since mid-last year, Luca de Meo has been the CEO of Kering. De Meo was for many years the CEO of Renault and a driving force behind the Formula 1 team, so the connection is quickly made.

Gucci is one of the largest luxury brands in the world. With the naming sponsorship of Alpine, the company would enter the world of glitz and glamour, perfectly matching the image Gucci aims to project. Reportedly, Gucci wants to leverage Formula 1—especially in the United States and Europe—to capitalize on the increasingly likely partnership with Alpine for further growth.

It is unknown how much Gucci is willing to spend for Alpine’s title sponsorship. In any case, such a major sponsorship would bring the French team tens of millions.

Alpine’s response to a possible deal with Gucci

GPblog asked Alpine about the collaboration with Gucci. The team responded with the following statement: "Alpine Formula One Team is constantly looking for new partnership opportunities and in contact with a wide range of brands and companies as potential partners. The discussions are however always kept confidential and they are disclosed only when confirmed and agreed by all parties."

Colapinto wows Buenos Aires crowd

Meanwhile, Colapinto says Argentina "deserves to have a race again" after the Alpine driver completed a show run on the streets of Buenos Aires in front of over half a million people.

The 22-year-old, himself from the Buenos Aires city of Pilar, performed his show run around a 2km course in the Palermo neighbourhood, near the capital's Monumento de Los Españoles, in a 2012 Lotus E20. The car was donning the pink and blue livery Alpine have had since its rebranding from Renault in 2021.

- Ludo van Denderen

BREAKING: JACK.DOOHAN TO RACE FOR ALPINE

 

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2024, ALPINE AREN'T THE SLOWEST

A tough start to the 2024 season for Alpine got a little better in China, where for the first time this year they’ve managed to lap quicker than one of their rivals.

This has come about partly thanks to the team readying one example of its floor upgrade a race ahead of schedule. The upgrade was given to Esteban Ocon, but he lapped slower than his team mate in yesterday’s sprint race qualifying session.

Ocon admitted he needed to make more set-up changes to get the best out of his new parts. Fortunately for him the latest iteration of F1’s sprint event rules allow that and he duly claimed his highest starting position of the season with 13th place on Saturday.

He claimed that place with a lap of 1’35.223 which was just 0.018s faster than Alexander Albon managed. With his team mate Logan Sargeant dropping out in Q1, Alpine have beaten a rival team in qualifying for the first time this year.

Sector times

Albon will surely believe he should be further up the starting order. The gap between his actual lap time and his theoretical best based on his sectors was the largest of any driver. While Ocon got within three-hundredths of his potential best, Albon was over a third of a second off his. The upshot was Williams are the slowest team on pure pace this weekend, not Alpine."

 https://www.racefans.net/2024/04/20/for-the-first-time-in-2024-alpine-arent-the-slowest-team-just/#:~:text=A%20tough%20start,weekend%2C%20not%20Alpine.

Teams’ performance

At the other end of the grid things are much more predictable. Indeed, after missing a pole position for the first time this year in Friday’s sprint qualifying, Red Bull enjoyed the biggest margin of the season so far over their rivals in Saturday’s sprint race, lapping almost half a second quicker than anyone."

 Field performance

This is F1’s first race at Shanghai International Circuit for five years. The current cars are over three-and-a-half seconds slower than the previous generation of machines, but that deficit will be exacerbated by the unusual surface treatment which was unexpectedly applied to the track before F1’s return.

That is expected to change again before F1 returns next year, as the track is due to be fully resurfaced before the 2025 race."

 - Keith Collantine

FORMER TOP GEAR PRESENTER JEREMY CLARKSON DELIVERS 1,000 BEERS BY TRACTOR TO ALPINE F1 TEAM

Television personality and celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson fulfilled a promise to the Alpine Formula One team on Monday by turning up at the factory on a Lamborghini tractor laden with 1,000 beers.

Former Top Gear presenter Clarkson, whose farming documentary series is a hit on Amazon, promised on Twitter to buy everyone a pint of his locally produced beer if Esteban Ocon finished on the podium at last month's Monaco Grand Prix.

The tweet had reached 5.5 million views by Monday.

ALPINE READU FOR THE MIAMI HEAT