Why Do F1 Drivers Spray Champagne?
The accidental tradition that became motorsport’s most famous celebration
A Formula 1 driver wins a Grand Prix. He steps onto the podium, lifts the trophy, takes an oversized bottle of Champagne and proceeds to spray most of it into the air. It is one of the most recognisable celebrations in sport and, when you think about it, also one of the strangest.
Why do Formula 1 drivers spray Champagne instead of simply drinking it? As Singapore prepares for another weekend of racing under the lights, the answer takes us back more than 75 years, to the early days of Formula 1, Juan Manuel Fangio and, eventually, an American racing driver who discovered that Champagne was considerably more fun when pointed at a crowd.
The tradition wasn't invented by Formula 1, and the Champagne spray wasn't dreamed up by a marketing department. Like many good traditions, it happened almost by accident.
Before the spray, there was the toast
Juan Manuel Fangio after the 1950 French Grand Prix at Reims
Champagne's relationship with Formula 1 goes all the way back to the beginning. In 1950, the inaugural season of the Formula One World Championship, Juan Manuel Fangio won the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux. Following his victory, Paul Chandon-Moët and his cousin Count Frédéric Chandon de Briailles invited the Argentine driver to share a celebratory toast.
It was an early moment in what would become a remarkably enduring relationship between Champagne and motor racing. Moët & Chandon would subsequently become associated with the victories of drivers including Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher.
At this point, however, Champagne was still something you drank. That was about to change.
1967: the bottle that changed everything
Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt celebrate their 1967 Le Mans victory, with Gurney spraying champagne on the podium—a spontaneous gesture that would establish a lasting tradition in motor racing.
There was no carefully planned brand activation or choreographed celebration. It was spontaneous. Formula 1's own account describes Gurney as having “inadvertently” kick-started the motorsport tradition that continues today.
The gesture caught on. What had previously been a ceremonial toast gradually became something much more visual and exuberant, and the Champagne spray became part of the theatre of winning a motor race.
How Champagne became part of the spectacle
Legends on the podium: Alain Prost, Keke Rosberg, and Ayrton Senna celebrate with champagne after an iconic finish at the 1986 Monaco Grand Prix.
Over the following decades, the Champagne spray became part of the familiar choreography of Formula 1: the chequered flag, the slowing-down lap, the podium, the national anthem, the trophy and finally the bottles.
There is an interesting contradiction at the heart of the ritual. Champagne has spent centuries cultivating associations with ceremony, refinement and luxury. Formula 1 takes that same product, shakes it violently and sprays it over everyone within reach. Perhaps that is precisely why the image works so well. The formality of victory suddenly gives way to complete chaos.
Michael Schumacher celebrates his victory.
Generations of champions celebrating this way have made the Champagne-soaked podium almost as recognisable as the race itself. It also transformed a bottle of wine into something else: part drink, part trophy and part sporting ritual.
Is it actually always Champagne?
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, Lando Norris, McLaren, 3rd position, celebrate with Sparkling Wine from Ferrari Trento on the podium
Not necessarily. Formula 1 podiums have featured different sparkling wines and drinks over the years, often reflecting sponsorships and local customs. So while “Champagne celebration” has become shorthand for the ritual, what comes out of the bottle has not always technically been Champagne.
This raises a useful distinction. Champagne isn't simply another name for sparkling wine. True Champagne comes from the Champagne region of France and must comply with the appellation's production rules. Other regions and countries can produce exceptional sparkling wines, but they cannot use the Champagne designation.
In other words, almost any sparkling wine can produce the familiar podium shower. Only one can actually be Champagne.
True Champagne comes only from France’s Champagne region, under strict appellation rules.
Champagne returns to Formula 1
The connection between Formula 1 and Champagne has changed over the years as commercial partnerships have come and gone. In 2025, however, Moët & Chandon returned as the Official Champagne of Formula 1 as part of the sport's long-term partnership with LVMH.
The timing was fitting. Formula 1 was celebrating its 75th anniversary, exactly 75 years after Fangio's French Grand Prix victory and that early post-race Champagne toast in 1950. The top three drivers and representative of the winning constructor once again had Moët & Chandon waiting for them on the podium.
There was a satisfying symmetry to it: from a toast in 1950, to Gurney's spontaneous spray in 1967, to one of the most instantly recognisable rituals in global sport.
From Reims to Singapore
The contrast between those early black-and-white photographs of Grand Prix racing and modern Formula 1 could hardly be greater. Few races illustrate that transformation better than Singapore, where cars race through Marina Bay at night against one of the championship's most spectacular urban backdrops.
Yet the podium ritual remains remarkably familiar. At the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix, the celebrations once again ended with Champagne being sprayed across the Marina Bay podium.
When Formula 1 returns to Singapore this October, the technology, cars and spectacle will belong firmly to the present. The celebration waiting at the end of the race, however, carries more than seven decades of history.
It began with a toast. Dan Gurney turned it into a shower. Generations of drivers turned it into tradition.
And somehow, after all these years, winning a Grand Prix still looks better with a bottle of Champagne in your hands.
Discover Aether's selection of French Champagne, from established houses to bottles worth discovering beyond the podium:
