Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.
Fun Fact
Kazakhstan’s Minister of Communications and Informatics has blocked the Tumblr site because it contained 60 sites of terrorism, extremism, and pornography in 2015.
My mind: Talia you need to stop imagining old F1 drivers are your father and that you're their daughter that gets into F1 and you make him super proud because of it
My daddy issues: Wait a minute- You think this is her fault?
The most important part of a Motorsport podium is a Champagne Spray. But you have to admit that spraying Champagne on teammates and rivals is kinda weird. So why the fuck do people spray champagne on each other on the podium.
Before we answer why drivers do the Champagne spray, first we must ask why Champagne is on the podium in the first place.
The first time Champagne was rewarded during Formula 1's first season. After the 1950 French Grand Prix, Juan Manuel Fangio was awarded a bottle of champagne from Moët & Chandon. Moët & Chandon would be the official champagne provider to F1 from 1966-1999 and from 2016-2017.
The first time Champagne was ever sprayed on the Podium did not happen during an F1 event. In fact, it wasn't even on purpose. After the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans (Yes, the one in Ford vs Ferrari), the class winner of Prototype 2000 Jo Siffert accidentally sprayed the crowd with Champagne when opening the bottle as it had built pressure from being in the sun for too long.
The next year's class and overall winner Dan Gurney (Also apart of the only pure American team to win Le Mans) decided to do a little trolling and shacked the bottle until it popped, spraying his teammate, photographers, Carroll Shelby, and Henry Ford II. Thus the tradition was born.
“What I did with the champagne was totally spontaneous. I had no idea it would start a tradition. I was beyond caring and just got caught up in the moment. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime occasions where things turned out perfectly...I thought this hard-fought victory needed something special.” - Dan Gurney
In ye olden days most drivers competed in multiple series a year, so my theory is that Dan Gurney friend and the people he competed with in that race thought it would be fun to spray the Champagne.
Because I mainly blog about F1, the first time Champagne Spray was not done by Dan Hurney(He was also an F1 driver, in fact he is the first of three people to win an F1, Indy, and Nascar race in the world) recorded was in 1969 French GP, where Jackie Stewart accidentally popped the cork of a warm bottle of Champagne, he tried to preserve the drink by covering it with his thumb, but it made it worse.
Fun fact: It cannot be called Champagne if it was not made in the French region of Champagne. So the current F1 officel victory drink Ferrari Trento(No relation to Scuderia Ferrari) is not Champagne, its sparkling wine.
Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW) 6éme, Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) vainqueur, Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren-Mercedes) 2éme et Fernando Alonso (Renault) Abd. - Grand Prix des USA - Indianapolis 2003. - source F1 Old and New.
Juan Pablo Montoya wears sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player during a practice session
September 23, 2005 - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Source: Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty Images
I'm here to interrupt your regularly scheduled Lestappen scrolling with the greatest F1 commercial to ever exist.
I've been watching F1 since 2005 when the absolute legend that is Kimi Räikkönen was teammates with Juan Pablo Montoya at McLaren, and I've remembered this ridiculous commercial verbatim since the first time I watched it like 15 years ago.