What is the cost of Ferrari champagne used in F1 celebrations?

The top three drivers in an F1 race are always seen spraying bottles of 'Ferrari champagne' at any given race weekend. However, how much does one of these bottles cost? Let's find out.

Spraying champagne on the podium of an F1 race is something that every driver in the sport dreams of when they enter. In the case of some drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, the contents of hundreds of bottles have been emptied on top of numerous podiums.

In the 70+ years of F1, various champagne brands have been sprayed at podiums. However, the sport switched to 'Ferrari Trento' champagne in 2021 in a bid to save cost. In doing so, the podium ceremony has become significantly cheaper for the sport, with a three-liter bottle of the bubbly stuff costing around €300.

That means €1200 worth of champagne is sprayed on the podium at the end of every race. In comparison, the 'Carbon' champagne bottles used in 2017, 2018, and 2019 cost nearly thrice as much per piece as the entire current podium bottles combined - at around €3000 per bottle.

Ferrari Trento has a contract with F1 until the end of 2025 and is likely to stay.

Ferrari Trento champagne is not actually champagne

While being colloquially referred to as 'champagne', the content of the Trento bottles used on the podium is not technically champagne.

A champagne is a sparkling wine that specifically originates from the Champagne region of France. A sparkling wine made anywhere else in the world cannot be called champagne by definition - similar to the difference between Scotch and regular whiskey.

Since the Trento sparkling wine originates in Italy, it cannot be called champagne by the very definition of the word.

Another common misconception amongst even the most ardent fans of the sport is Trento sparkling wine's connection to the F1 team of the same name. The two have no connection whatsoever besides their country of origin.

While it is easy to see why many are confused by the Ferrari branding on the bottles, the Scuderia team has nothing to do with the sparkling wine company and is an independent body.

Further, in some Middle Eastern countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the sport replaces sparkling wine with a non-alcoholic alternative to honor the country's rules.

With the 2023 F1 season to start in a little over two weeks, it will be interesting to see which of the current drivers on the grid get their share of sparkling wine on the podium.