Today, no motorsport event escapes tradition: Once the trophy ceremony is over, the drivers present on the podium generously sprinkle themselves with champagne.
At least that's the image engraved in people's minds, whereas in MotoGP, not the slightest drop of the famous French beverage splashes on the team members and journalists gathered under the podium...
Return to the origin of the facts.
In 1950, Juan Manuel Fangio won the French Grand Prix which took place in Reims for the first year of the Formula 1 World Championship. He received as a reward a bottle of champagne offered by Paul Chandon Moët and Frédéric Chandon de Brailles, two producers local.
The measurement is extended to the entire podium in subsequent years, then to other events over time, while the capacity of the bottles has a definite tendency to increase...
In 1967, the 24 hours of Le Mans reached a sort of climax with the victory of the American giant Ford over Ferrari. Annoyed at not having been able to finalize the purchase of the Maranello factory, Henry Ford II sent a veritable armada into Sarthe to confirm his first victory in 1966 and the tension is palpable throughout the race, especially that the victorious Ford GT 40 Mark IV of AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney had to endure harassment as borderline as it was childish from the Ferrari of Michael Parkes during the night, when the latter was four laps behind.
On arrival, for the first time in history, Dan Gurney sprinkles everyone with champagne. He explains : “I was so excited that when they handed me the Moët et Chandon Magnum, I shook the bottle and started spraying the photographers, the pilots, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and their wives. It was a very special moment at the time, I didn't know that I had started a tradition that still continues today in the winner's circle around the world."
In Formula 1, Moët et Chandon was replaced by Mumm until 2016, then, faced with the increase in the financial demands of the organizers (it is rumored that Pernod Ricard, the group owning Mumm, then paid 5 million euros per year to see its bottles watering the podium), by current French production at $3000 per Jeroboam surrounded by carbon.
In MotoGP, we first replaced the noble beverage with an infamous Spanish copy for 16 years (we still remember the smell) before switching to the Italian Prosecco in force since this season.
Capacity of Champagne bottles:
Half bottle or Fillette – 37,5 cl
Bottle – 75 cl
Magnum – 1,5 liters (2 bottles)
Jeroboam – 3 lites (4 bottles)
Rehoboam – 4,5 liters (6 bottles)
Methuselah – 6 liters (8 bottles)
Shalmanazar – 9 liters (12 bottles)
Balthazar – 12 liters (16 bottles)
Nebuchadnezzar – 15 liters (20 bottles)
Salomon – 18 liters (24 bottles)
