F1 alcohol sponsors work on two levels in 2026: the championship, with Heineken as a partner since 2016 and LVMH bringing Moët & Chandon to the podium since 2025, and the teams, where beers and spirits appear on Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Williams, Audi, Haas, Cadillac and Aston Martin. The calendar, however, is not uniform: there are countries where an alcohol brand can show itself freely, and others where it has to disappear or go in disguise. For a sponsor, what makes the difference is knowing in advance which weekend is which.

We have covered why beers and spirits love motorsport in a dedicated article on alcohol and motorsport sponsorship, and Heineken’s story has its own chapter in our piece on Heineken in Formula 1. Here we look at the map: who is on board today, where advertising is banned and what a brand should plan before signing.

Who the F1 alcohol sponsors are in 2026

At championship level there are two names. Heineken has been a Formula 1 partner since 2016 and in November 2025 announced a renewal starting in 2027, built around Heineken 0.0 and the «When You Drive, Never Drink» campaign. LVMH signed a ten-year deal starting in 2025, which brought back Moët & Chandon as official champagne in place of Ferrari Trento: the story of the podium bottles is in our article on champagne in Formula 1.

At team level, these are the names in 2026:

• Ferrari: Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, a multi-year deal since 2024 with the brand on the car and race suits, and Chivas Regal, team partner since 2025;
• McLaren: Jack Daniel’s, partner since 2022 and renewed in September 2025;
• Red Bull Racing: Heineken, team partner since 2023 and also linked to Max Verstappen;
• Williams: Estrella Galicia 0,0, official beer from 2026;
• Audi: Paulaner, official supplier since the team’s debut in 2026, built around its alcohol-free wheat beer;
• Haas: Singha, official beer from 2026;
• Cadillac: Jim Beam, official spirit from the team’s debut in 2026;
• Aston Martin: Glenfiddich, a multi-year partnership announced in Las Vegas in November 2024.

Two details say a lot. Three teams, Ferrari, Williams and Audi, chose an alcohol-free beer as their partner; Chivas Regal presented its Ferrari deal as a way to raise awareness of the dangers of drink-driving, and Jim Beam talked about fan experiences «with a focus on alcohol responsibility». An alcohol brand entering F1 today knows it will have to explain why it is on a racing car, and prepares the answer before the first race.

Light, dark and grey markets

In 2018, when Williams raced in Martini colours, its marketing department explained to RaceFans how you manage a world calendar with a vermouth brand on the bodywork. Races fell into three categories: light markets, with no restrictions; dark markets, where the brand has to disappear; grey markets, with particular rules. France and Abu Dhabi were dark markets. In Russia and Bahrain the team could use the word Martini but not the logo. The manual the team used to handle all these variations had grown from eight pages at the start of the partnership to more than a hundred.

Bahrain was a good example of a grey market. In 2017 the specialist press described it like this: alcohol could be consumed, unlike in Saudi Arabia, but advertising at sporting events was banned, and the authorities asked teams to restrict themselves out of respect for local law. That year the large Martini logo disappeared from the Williams, while the small Singha logo stayed visible on the Ferrari. These rules change over time and from country to country: that is why teams check them race by race, and a serious contract states who is responsible for doing so.

France: the Loi Évin and the weekend without beer

Among Europe’s strictest laws, the one that has weighed most on the F1 calendar is French. The Loi Évin, law 91-32 of 10 January 1991, allows advertising of alcoholic drinks, meaning drinks above 1.2%, only in a closed list of media, which excludes television and cinema, and bans any sponsorship whose purpose or effect is the direct or indirect advertising of alcoholic drinks. By indirect advertising the law also means anything that, through its graphics, name, brand or emblem, recalls an alcoholic drink. Since 1995 a code of conduct has also set out how to handle foreign events on TV where alcohol brands appear.

The result was plain to see at the 2021 French Grand Prix. Heineken disappeared completely for the weekend; on the Alfa Romeo, Singha became «Singha Drinking Water»; Ferrari removed all its Estrella Galicia decals; Peroni kept only its blue ribbon, without the name. The French Grand Prix has not been on the calendar since 2023, but the lesson still holds: where the law also targets indirect advertising, not even an alcohol-free version with the same name is safe.

0.0 as the key, with some limits

Alcohol-free versions are the answer beer brands use most. Heineken built its F1 presence around Heineken 0.0 and the message about sober driving; Ferrari, Williams and Audi went straight for an alcohol-free beer as their partner. 0.0 lets a brand speak to an audience that drives, stay consistent with the responsible drinking message and, in some markets, appear where regular beer could not.

The limit is the French one: when the law looks at the brand rather than the product, 0.0 is not enough. That is why anyone entering F1 with an alcohol brand has to think in terms of two visual identities, a full one and a «clean» one, and decide in advance what to show on dark weekends. It is not a graphic detail: it changes the value of the package, because races where the brand cannot appear are races where the sponsor pays without being seen.

What an alcohol brand should plan before signing

From our work with teams and brands, the questions to settle before the contract are always the same:

• the calendar map: which Grands Prix are light, dark or grey for your product, and on what legal basis;
• the second livery: who designs it, who pays for it, who applies it and how far in advance, on the car, the race suits and the garage materials;
• the real value: how many races are actually visible, and how the price accounts for the ones where the brand disappears;
• the message: the share of the budget for responsible drinking, which in recent deals, from Heineken to Chivas Regal and Jim Beam, has become part of the package;
• digital: rules on content, audience age and platforms apply off the track too, and change from market to market.

It is work you do properly once and then update every season, like the Williams manual that went from eight pages to more than a hundred. If you are considering Formula 1 for a beer, wine or spirits brand, the starting point is our page on Formula 1 sponsorship.