Moët & Chandon is back in Formula 1, reclaiming its place in the sport’s most recognizable ritual.
In keeping with tradition, at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday night, race winner Max Verstappen of Red Bull and fellow drivers Lando Norris and George Russell unleashed a sparkling rain of Champagne across the podium.
“There was almost 30 years of no Moët, and so, coming back this year was really a big moment for us,” said Sibylle Scherer, chief executive officer and president of Moët & Chandon, speaking from the paddock — the team working areas behind the garages — in the hours before the race.
Results were later reshuffled after McLaren’s post-race disqualification for excessive plank wear, which moved Mercedes’ Russell into second and promoted his teammate Kimi Antonelli to third, shaking up the championship. Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri opened the season strongly, and while McLaren took the 2025 Constructors’ Championship, events now leave the drivers’ trajectories uncertain in the fight for the Drivers’ title.
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But the race’s final order was only part of the picture, set against the backdrop of a sport experiencing major commercial evolution.
The Moët partnership is nearing the end of its first year in a decade-long global deal between F1 and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton that’s reportedly worth an estimated $1 billion and involves several of the group’s houses, including Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer, the Official Timekeeper as of 2025.
Vegas marks the season’s final U.S. stop before teams head to Qatar, followed by Abu Dhabi for the finale.
“Moët & Chandon is very much connected with motorsport and with sport celebration in general,” Scherer went on.
The house’s motorsport history dates back to 1936, when Italian racing driver Tazio Nuvolari was presented with a bottle of Moët after winning the Vanderbilt Cup, the first major trophy in American auto racing.
The connection with F1 began in 1950, the year the sport launched the first World Championship of Drivers, now the Drivers’ Championship. According to both the company and F1, Paul Chandon-Moët and his cousin Count Frédéric Chandon de Briailles toasted Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio with Moët after his French Grand Prix victory.
Then came a moment that’s become central to the house’s story: in 1967 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, American racer Dan Gurney spontaneously shook and sprayed a jeroboam of Moët into the crowd — a gesture British driver Jackie Stewart would bring to F1 two years later.
Moët & Chandon went on to become a podium fixture for decades, most notably from 1981 to 1997, when its jeroboam was officially part of the ceremony. More recently, from 2021 through 2024, drivers celebrated with sparkling wine from Ferrari Trento.
Moët’s return comes at a high-visibility moment for the sport. F1 is marking its 75th anniversary, under Liberty Media and CEO Stefano Domenicali, boosted in part by surging U.S. interest from Netflix’s hit “Drive to Survive.”
“We really own this moment from when the race is over,” said Scherer.
As the ritual goes, viewers watch the top three drivers move through a sequence of scenes, from “parc fermé” (the secured post-race holding area) to the tradition of signing the jeroboam, and into the “cool down room” — a space Moët curates with historic signed bottles and other narrative elements — where raw emotions are seen as the drivers watch replays and catch their breath before heading to the podium.
This year’s kick-off came in Melbourne in March, where Moët & Chandon opened the partnership at the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix — the first race under F1’s new slate of title sponsors. There, the brand staged one of its most visible moments: “The Spirit of 1743,” its giant cork-shaped hot-air balloon drifting above Albert Park as a nod to its 18th-century origins.
Activations unfold across markets; in the U.S., that also includes Miami in May and Austin in October.
In Vegas, Moët & Chandon extended its presence across both the paddock and the wider fan experience. Its bottles were poured throughout Paddock Club — F1’s premium hospitality tier, with tickets starting at $3,300. Housed inside a four-level structure, it features dozens of suites, a rooftop and views directly onto the pit lane and start-finish line. LVMH hosted its VICs inside a Louis Vuitton–designed suite, joined by executives like Frédéric Arnault, CEO of LVMH Watches.
At the suite’s bar, guests were served pours from across the Moët Hennessy portfolio, among them Volcan de mi Tierra tequila and SirDavis, the whisky developed with Beyoncé Knowles — who delivered one of the weekend’s most talked-about appearances. She arrived with Jay-Z in a custom Louis Vuitton racing catsuit for a hot lap with Lewis Hamilton, then reemerged later in a Ferrari-red leather outfit, complete with micro-shorts and logo detailing. Her fanbase quickly lit up online, many interpreting the look as a possible signal of a new musical era: rock.
Actress Sarah Paulson, attending as a guest of Moët, was among other familiar faces trackside, as the house’s visuals appeared throughout the circuit: from giant-screen placements and signage to a flowing Champagne pyramid at the VIP paddock entrance, plus a 60-second film on Vegas’ massive LED Sphere throughout race weekend.
“It’s a lot of authentic connections that we have, and we always say, ‘Victory is better when shared,’” Scherer added. “It’s celebrating not only the winners and the race drivers, but the teams behind it…It takes a village. And it’s the same to create a bottle. It takes three years minimum to do that. We see a lot of parallels.”
Based in Épernay in France’s Champagne region, Moët & Chandon now reaches more than 150 countries with a portfolio ranging from its flagship Brut Impérial to Ice Impérial and, most recently, the Collection Impériale launched in 2023.
As part of LVMH’s wine & spirits division — also spanning luxury wines and high-end spirits across global markets — Moët’s return to F1 aligns with the group’s strategy of positioning its heritage houses alongside cultural touchpoints.
Chris Gabaldon, president and CEO of Moët Hennessy North America, said F1 offers a convergence of audience quality, relevance and scale.
“If you think about Formula 1, it’s one of the fastest growing sports.…And the audience that it attracts is this beautiful audience,” he said. “It’s an international audience, diverse…from people in their 20s to older generations.”
The partnership also taps into younger drinkers whose habits are shifting.
“Live sports, live entertainment — that’s what young people are super interested in,” Gabaldon said, noting that COVID-19 accelerated a change toward more intentional consumption. Younger drinkers, he added, are less focused on status and more on meaningful moments. “It’s about making memories.”
Pairing Moët & Chandon with F1 reinforces a standard of excellence on both sides, he said, with the two together helping shape a shared experience — one that will evolve in the years ahead.
“Generations are changing the way that they consume alcohol,” Gabaldon continued. “They’re changing the way that they attend live entertainment. They change the way that they socialize. We will work together to find out what that great experience is going to look like two years, three years, 10 years from now. It’s going to look completely different than it does today.”
While it’s too early to detail specific learnings, Moët & Chandon said its focus for 2026 is on crafting experiences that heighten F1’s collective emotion while supporting its broader strategy.
In the U.S., that wider LVMH ambition is taking shape in key markets like Los Angeles, where the conglomerate has been accelerating its Beverly Hills footprint with remodels, relocations and new openings, including Dior and Bulgari.
The most ambitious development is still ahead. At the corner of Rodeo Drive and South Santa Monica Boulevard, LVMH will demolish the long-planned Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills building, rejected in a 2023 referendum, and replace it with one of the group’s largest projects: a 45,000-square-foot Louis Vuitton flagship slated for 2029 and designed by Frank Gehry and Peter Marino, integrating women’s and men’s collections with food and exhibition space.
“It’s way more than retail,” said Michael Burke, chairman and CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, speaking across from the site during a Nov. 19 visit to L.A. “Everybody’s motivated to make this the most spectacular multicultural space.”
Despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, Burke said LVMH is committed to long-term investment, noting that market cycles are temporary.
“We spent 20 years dreaming about this,” he continued. “When the dream is over, it’s over,” he said, referencing the abandoned hotel plans. “It’s going to be the most beautiful retail project in the world — that dream now excites us.”
The momentum comes as L.A. gears up for major global events, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. Reinforcing the West Coast’s importance for LVMH, as recently announced by WWD, Jonathan Anderson will show his first Dior cruise collection in L.A. this May.
