On Saturday night, adrenaline was palpable on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit as team Red Bull’s Max Verstappen became the unlikely victor of the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix amid a season plagued with vehicular concerns. With the Dutch driver’s chances of claiming a Formula One World Championship title newly reignited, he sent champagne flying instead of sparks during the Grand Prix’s podium ceremony. Freshly doused in a jeroboam’s worth of Moët & Chandon, the champion was presented with his first-place trophy from Louis Vuitton’s bespoke Trophy Trunk to the cheers of thousands.
Emblazoned with a crisp white ‘V’ and matching damier, the Trophy Trunk represented the culmination of the French maison’s presence at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Earlier in the evening, before the drivers—and most fans—had even arrived at the F1 Pit Building, Beyoncé strode onto the track in a custom white leather Louis Vuitton racing suit for a fast lap around the circuit in a Ferrari driven by Lewis Hamilton before settling into the Paddock Club’s Velocity suite to watch the Grand Prix with Jay-Z.
As the race start neared, friends of the maison were invited to take a track tour of the circuit from the flatbed of a Formula One semitruck while league hosts detailed the know-how required to take the course, its 17 turns, and precious few straightaways at nearly 230 miles per hour. Attendees received a driver’s-eye-view of the course, including the fateful Turn 1 that later saw Red Bull’s Liam Lawson collide with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and which strategists believe allowed Verstappen to establish and maintain his winning lead over McLaren’s Lando Norris in lap one.
Since earlier this year, when LVMH inked its decade-long global partnership with Formula One, Louis Vuitton has been the most outspoken of the luxury group’s portfolio brands in championing its partnership with the racing league. The maison’s Asnières-made Trophy Trunks—which have a deep history in the America’s Cup, FIFA World Cup, Roland-Garros, and, since 2021, the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco—have, in just over one month, become the mode de rigueur of presenting champions’ trophies at the major Grand Prix circuits.
On the night of the Grand Prix, the Louis Vuitton Paddock Club Suite welcomed guests of LVMH’s timepiece maison Tag Heuer, which in January renewed its role as the official timekeeper of F1, and on the night of Grand Prix Qualifying had inaugurated the Bellagio’s Carbone Riviera with an invitation-only dinner for tastemakers and VICs. Following the Grand Prix’s podium ceremony, friends of both maisons were invited behind the velvet ropes of the über-luxe Fontainebleau Las Vegas. There, Belvedere hosted the official F1 afterparty from the property’s 36th-floor members’ club, the Poodle Room, while its outpost of South Beach’s swanky LIV nightclub hosted Moët’s after-hours celebration. Victory may, as the maison’s Trophy Trunk slogan goes, travel in Louis Vuitton—but so do LVMH’s VVIPs.
