More than 25 years after the two world championships won with the 158 and 159, Alfa Romeo returned to F1 as a manufacturer. In the seventies, Alfa already supplied the engines to the Brabham team but in the team headed by Carlo Chiti there was a strong need to build a complete car. The development of the 177 was very long: it began in 1977 but only at the 1979 Belgian GP did the car make its debut, with Bruno Giacomelli. The 177 served as an experimental platform in anticipation of the 179, which debuted in September 1979 at the Italian GP in Monza.