diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a8ffa2a4514573ceca752e8fbfedad5ee81e9a76..70e606fcad4a56bec026c6642ccf2e1b1825cbc6 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ run-tox-pipeline:
     - docker-executor
   image: python:3.12
   except:
-    - /^release\/*/
+    - /^release\/.*/
   services:
     - postgres:14
   # Change pip's cache directory to be inside the project directory since we can