It seems like it’s a good time to be Alpine, even if a while ago, it seemed like its world was falling apart.

2024 sees Renault announce that it was ending its F1 powertrain program. Staff made protests and the sport watched a rarity - a car manufacturer leaving F1 while new entrants came flooding in.

In 2025, Oliver Oakes resigned as team principal after his brother was arrested and charged with "transferring criminal property". Oliver is not accused of any wrongdoing, but it added uncertainty to the team. 

They had a driver swap, trading Jack Doohan after six races for Franco Colapinto. The Argentine driver scored the same number of points you did in 18 races. Pierre Gasly laboured to 22 and Alpine finished this era of regulations in last place.

Then there’s the much-talked about 24% of the team’s equity that is apparently on sale for those with a few quid. Mercedes wants it, Christian Horner wants it, Zak Brown doesn’t want Wolff to have it. 

Oh, and Flavio Briatore is heavily involved in the team. If you look for the word flamboyant in the dictionary, you might get a picture of the Italian. He was forced to leave F1 after the Crashgate scandal left the sport reeling, one year after the spying controversy between Ferrari and McLaren. The lifetime ban was overturned, and Briatore is now the Executive Advisor - a team principal by any other name.

So far, so disastrous. But Canada is showing that maybe Alpine are settling into their new role as the sport’s competent jesters. Ditching the works engine showed that there’s no place for sentiment in F1, and Alpine-Mercedes sounds silly, but it seems to be working. 

Franco Colapinto seems to be coming good at just the right time. He was one of the drivers I had in mind when I predicted that we won’t finish the season with the same 22 we’ve started with. Yet, he is one of only six drivers to start and finish each race of the season and is currently ahead of Isack Hadjar and Carlos Sainz. Canada saw the Argentine finish sixth, the best result of his career so far.

On the other side of the garage, Pierre Gasly has taken at least a point at every weekend so far and is only two off his points total from last season. He’s the driver who has a long-term contract, so it would be Colapinto who would be more likely to lose out if a big-name driver was to appear.

And it’s faintly ridiculous that Alpine are even in conversation for George Russell or Kimi Antonelli if they suddenly find themselves out of luck at Mercedes. But, Briatore being Briatore, has raised the possibility of a driver change for 2027. And Briatore being Briatore, Alpine are going back to a few decades with a fashion label. 

Flavio Briatore was hired by the Benetton Group in the 90s. I remember them as the sky-blue cars with the Japanese tobacco sponsor on there being driven by Michael Schumacher. But before the blue were these multi-coloured United Colours of Benetton efforts. 

The idea being that if you’re a fashion house, you need a Formula 1 team to go along with it.

Well, in 2027, that’s exactly what’s happening again, with Gucci joining the grid as the title sponsor of Alpine. A sport that has title partners in finance, software and printers that hide behind a subscription wall now has one of fashion’s most recognisable names.

With numbers around $50m a year being reported, this is a huge change for Alpine and how they will do business.

For Gucci, they have two models to give them global exposure 24 times a year. For fans, the potential return of a black and gold car, and really for the fashion house, this was a strategic necessity. LVMH’s brands are put front and centre of F1 fans each Sunday, who are reminded that “victory travels in Louis Vuitton” as the Tag Heuer clock ticks around to a formation lap and the weekend ending in Moet being splashed around a podium. This is an eight-figure counterpunch by being part of a team that has ambitions.

It also reflects where businesses see F1 and its (still) growing fanbase. It’s not solely the preserve of petrol geeks who can tell you everything about Ronnie Petersen while crying into their real ale about V10s. Maybe it never was. But it’s far more acceptable to be an F1 fan now. This is Gucci buying wardrobe rights to two relatively minor characters in the fastest moving drama (and occasionally comedy) on earth. 

That 24% stake I talked about earlier - it was bought for €200m about three years ago. If and when it is sold, it’ll sell for comfortably more than double that. That’s where F1 has progressed to in such a short space of time.

With F1’s enforced Spring Break out of the way, the next steps for Alpine are to negotiate Euro Summer as the sport heads across, around and through the continent for the next seven weeks, starting with Monaco and hitting summer shutdown after Hungary in 49 days time. Alpine are in a much better position than they were last season, with their drivers confidently taking on the new regulations and the whispers of mid-season driver replacements coming from elsewhere in the Paddock. Last year after five rounds, Alpine had six points. Despite waiting a while for consistency, the biggest danger they face is impatience. 

Monaco is the next test for the F1 drivers, with no straight mode at all available down the famous street track. Kimi Antonelli has a 43-point lead over George Russell, after the latter’s engine blowout caused him to throw his toys out of the pram and onto a live racetrack. Considering the rightful fear in his voice after overturning his car on a live racetrack in Australia a couple of years ago, one of the directors of the GPDA should know better. He did go on to apologise, and faced only a suspended fine for the incident.

You’re cool, but are you Oscar Piastri cool? The Aussie visiting someone’s garden to watch the Isle of Man TT in the same week he has a wasp named after him…

The rumour is Valtteri Bottas is getting culled for Colton Herta, but Herta doesn’t yet have an F1 SuperLicense

I don’t understand Swedish, but this commentary of Swede Felix Rosenqvist winning the Indy500 by a stupidly small margin is a must-listen

All the headlines in 2026 are video game references.

Retro is making something of a revival, as it becomes easier to emulate on the go. It means games and systems from long ago are getting a second life. This means I can really choose anything as my video to feature, so I’m going to use Sonic 3, Carnival Night Zone 2. Those who know, already know.

Turns out you were meant to hold up and down on the controller.