Formula 1’s official Champagne partner is going all-in on Miami.

Moët & Chandon, which became the official Champagne sponsor of Formula 1 in 2025, is activating ahead of the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, with focuses both on and off the tracks.

“We are remaining very intentional about two things — owning the celebration journey at the track itself and then extending that spirit into the city,” said Chris Gabaldon, chief executive officer of Moët Hennessy USA. “It’s not just a race, it’s a weeklong cultural moment. And Moët & Chandon should and will be a part of all of it.”

That includes a brand presence from the Parc Fermé to the cooldown room, corridor and podium. That podium is being replicated for one of the brand’s activations at Fontainebleau Miami Beach, one of the venues where the Champagne brand is also popping up, in addition to the Miami Beach Edition and Seaspice. The intention is for each range of pop-ups to vary by city. “For F1 and Champagne enthusiasts, Moët & Chandon leans into the character of each city hosting the Grand Prix and elevates the experience so it’s memorable and leaves a lasting impression,” Gabaldon said.

Case in point, “At Seaspice, we’re hosting a Moët & Chandon boat experience on the water, which feels completely right for Miami,” Gabaldon said. “It’s that idea of meeting people where they are and creating something memorable in their environment.”

The history between Moët and racing is a long one. In 1936, Tazio Nuvolari raised a bottle of Moët & Chandon after winning the Vanderbilt Cup; the brand served as the official Champagne from the 1960s to 1997, before reprising the title in 2025. “Champagne, at its core, sparks emotion. It marks the moments that matter,” Gabaldon said, applying that philosophy to the other cultural phenomena where the Champagne brand shows up. “We’re always asking, what are the moments that matter to people right now, both personally and culturally, and do we belong there. The Golden Globes, Formula 1, the U.S. Open — they are all about excellence, about shared experiences, about a community of people who care deeply about what they do coming together to celebrate the pinnacle moments and the spirit of teamwork it takes to get there. All these shared experiences, these victories, are the result of a collective with a precise level of expertise working hand-in-hand, much like at Moët & Chandon, where everyone is dedicated to the quality of our wines.”

Gabaldon is looking at the partnership in both qualitative and quantitative ways, with an emphasis on creating brand love and affinity with consumers — “Not because they saw our logo everywhere but because how we showed up genuinely resonated with them,” Gabaldon said. “We will, of course, look at reach, at social engagement, at on-premise velocity during race week, but we’ll also be listening to what are people saying, how the brand is showing up in culture. We have a 10-year runway in this partnership that allows us to continue to evolve and build something that will be memorable beyond the moment.”

Although F1 epitomizes the celebratory type of event Champagne is associated with, Gabaldon also wants to normalize more regular consumption of Champagne, and sees F1 as the perfect vehicle for it.

“Formula 1 helps us here in a really interesting way. It’s aspirational, but it’s also wildly accessible — millions and millions of fans, a whole generation of new enthusiasts who may be watching a race from their living room or a bar. That’s an audience that’s already in a celebratory mindset, already leaning into the energy of the sport,” he said. “If Moët & Chandon is already showing up authentically in that world, not just on the podium but in the hotel bars and the terrace experiences and the pre-race moments, we start to become part of how they celebrate, not just how the champions they’re watching do.

“The current and evolving consumer in particular is looking to invest in quality, in craft, in a story. The conversation we want to have with them is not just about the liquid itself, it’s about the savoir-faire, the artistry, the 280 years of expertise in every bottle while meeting them in the cultural moments they actually care about,” Gabaldon continued. “F1 is one of those moments.”