There is no Formula 1 podium – and in other motorsport categories – that does not conclude with a bubble bath in which the winners spray each other with huge bottles of sparkling wine (almost always, but not always, Champagne). The tradition, firmly rooted in this sport, has a start date and even features one of the most relevant figures in Argentine motorsport: Juan Manuel Fangio.
It was the famous pilot born in Balcarce, Buenos Aires Province, who first received a bottle of Champagne on a podium. The date? July 2, 1950, the day “El Chueco” won the French Grand Prix, held at the Reims circuit, the cradle of bubbles. On that occasion, two passionate fans, Paul Chandon-Moet and his cousin, Count Frederic Chandon de Briailles, decided to honor the winner with one of their best bottles.
But that day there was no Champagne spraying at the podium. Fangio, no fool at all, took the bottle home, and since then the custom of rewarding the winner with a sparkling wine was established. But what about the bubble bath? That was born a few years later and in another circuit: Le Mans, and the year was 1966.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered the most prestigious endurance motorsport race in the world. It is held in France, and its first edition took place in 1923. But the 1966 race changed the way of celebrating victory forever.
The one who climbed to the podium was the Swedish driver Jo Siffert, who had a problem with the bottle that had been given to the winner since the times of Fangio’s Grand Prix. Upon reaching the podium, the cork popped off, involuntarily showering those around Siffert. The incident was due to the bottle being warm because it had been left in the sun for a while.
Many found the unintended show amusing. Such was the case with the American driver Dan Gurney, who, upon winning the Le Mans race the following year, had no better idea than to shake the Champagne bottle and spray everyone around the podium.
Someone who did not take the occurrence well was none other than Henry Ford II, who was at the celebration with his wife, because Gurney was racing for Ford. “It was fun in the moment, but, unbelievably, he even sprayed Madame Ford,” commented Phil Henny, a Swiss mechanic who worked on Gurney’s team at Le Mans that year, in an interview with Wine Enthusiast magazine. “She was dressed so nicely but now was covered in Champagne. Henry Ford did not look happy.”
The tradition inaugurated by Gurney at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967 continues to this day, although with some small variations. Both the size of the bottles and the brand of sparkling wine have changed over time.
Gurney shook a magnum bottle (1.5 liters, twice the size of a standard wine bottle), but to enhance the spectacle, it became traditional to replace the magnum with the Jeroboam size bottle, which contains 3 liters of sparkling wine.
Attracted by the global exposure that the ritual began to represent, various brands vied for the Formula 1 podium. For decades, Moët & Chandon was the chosen one, until in the year 2000 it was displaced by Champagne Cordon Rouge from the G.H. Mumm house, also produced in Reims, France.
The producers even decided to create a special edition for Formula 1, in which the brand’s logo can be read with the bottle right side up or upside down, to not waste the precious moment when the winner tilts the neck down to spray those below the podium.
G.H. Mumm relinquished exclusivity for the celebration in 2017, and from the Monaco Grand Prix that year until 2019, it was the house of Champagne Carbon – known for the fact that its bottles are covered with the same carbon fiber used in the bodywork of Formula 1 cars – that was chosen for the celebrations.
In 2020, Moët & Chandon returned to the podium but for a short time, as in 2021 the Italian sparkling wine house Ferrari Trento won the bid against the French Champagne, securing exclusivity for three years with Formula 1. In 2021 alone, their sales in the United States increased by 50%.
At the beginning of February, Moët & Chandon was confirmed as Formula One’s official champagne provider, marking the return of the French fizz to the podium, 75 years after Juan Manuel Fangio won the French Grand Prix at Reims.
