WHEN F1 TAKES OVER MADRID, BELVEDERE BECOMES IMPERATIVE
Formula 1 is coming to Madrid, and long before the cars hit the track, the city has already become part of the spectacle. During this period, the Grand Prix spills beyond the race circuit to permeate hotels, restaurants, shops, and cultural venues, while a host of brands capitalize on the international spotlight to host events, unveil collaborations, and launch products created exclusively for the occasion.
Fashion, luxury, gastronomy, and entertainment find a new reason in F1 to take over Madrid, transforming the race into something far greater than a mere sporting event. The result is a hyperactive city, teeming with brand activations and experiences,yet one that is also more congested, expensive, and tailored to the visitor. The question is no longer just what Formula 1 brings to Madrid, but what it turns Madrid into while it is here.
Amidst these activations, Nota Blu New Brasserie joins the Formula 1 fever with an offering that translates the language of motor racing into the realms of gastronomy and mixology. From September 4 to 13, the venue at Claudio Coello 10 presents a limited-edition experience in partnership with Belvedere,the competition’s official vodka, built around shared concepts such as precision, technique, and a modern vision of luxury.
At the heart of the offering is a €95 menu combining caviar, Wagyu, tuna, sole, and lamb with a selection of cocktails designed to complement the culinary journey. The experience begins with a charcoal-grilled toast topped with Wagyu cecina (cured beef) and caviar, paired with a Belvedere 10 Dry Martini; it continues with dishes such as crispy tuna sashimi and Miso Meunière sole; and it concludes with a Chantilly and red berry mille-feuille accompanied by a Mexican Carajillo. It is a sequence that seeks not to literally recreate Formula 1, but rather to embrace its imagery of precision, speed, and exclusivity.
The bar extends this concept with three cocktails created for the occasion: a Dry Martini, a Bloody Mary, and a Yuzu Kamikaze, all served with the same Wagyu and caviar toast. More than just a promotional collaboration, Nota Blu serves here as an example of how Madrid is absorbing the arrival of F1 and transforming it into a city-wide experience; a competition that is also savored through food and drink and, naturally, commercialized.
Formula 1 leaves behind an inseparable mix in Madrid: increased tourism, more business, and a city teeming with offerings, but also heightened noise, overcrowding, and the constant sensation of living inside a shop window. Questioning that model does not mean denying what unfolds around it.
For, ultimately, it matters less who organizes the experience than what that experience manages to spark. Brands, institutions, and sponsors build the context, but it is the people who turn it into a memory. And perhaps therein lies the true value of these events: in everything that, for a few hours, brings us together.
Words by @alraco43