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Formula 1 is now a $3.87 billion business, and food is no longer an afterthought in that equation<\/p>\n
Hilton<\/p>\n
McLaren won the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship. While the drivers get the glory and the engineers get the credit, there\u2019s a quieter player in the paddock that\u2019s had a front-row seat to both titles, and that\u2019s Hilton.<\/p>\n
Formula 1 is now a $3.8 billion business<\/a>, and food is no longer an afterthought in that equation. Three-day hospitality packages across the 2025 F1 calendar ranged from $1,500<\/a> for basic circuit access to over $15,000 <\/a>for Paddock Club passes and that\u2019s before you\u2019ve checked into your hotel. The fans filling those packages are a specific kind of traveller. According to Hilton\u2019s own research, 60% of luxury travellers prioritize staying at hotels with great restaurants, and 86% say they value experiences over material things. <\/p>\n Formula 1 has become one of the most demanding tests of what hospitality can actually deliver. Hilton\u2019s F1 partnership puts its properties at the center of that test. Across the race calendar, from a trackside hotel at Silverstone to a luxury address on the Singapore Marina Bay Street Circuit, the work happening inside the kitchens is as choreographed and as high-stakes as anything happening on the track.<\/p>\n The real differentiator, race weekend after race weekend, is what happens in the kitchen.<\/p>\n Hilton<\/p>\n The properties themselves are part of the story. Hilton Garden Inn Silverstone is the first trackside hotel at the legendary British Grand Prix circuit. In Baku, the Hilton overlooks the Azerbaijan Grand Prix\u2019s city circuit from its Sky Grill Rooftop and 360 Bar, and in Las Vegas, the Waldorf Astoria sits a short walk from the Strip Circuit. Each property is positioned to make the race weekend seamless, with proximity ranking as the top consideration for accommodation among F1 travellers (according to Hilton\u2019s Asia Pacific research). <\/p>\n But proximity is only part of it. The real differentiator, race weekend after race weekend, is what happens in the kitchen.<\/p>\n Nobody knows that better than Executive Chef Thomas Jakobi, who runs F&B operations at Conrad Singapore Marina Bay. Jakobi has worked Grand Prix weekends across Qatar, Dubai and Japan, and describes the Singapore race as uniquely demanding because it\u2019s a night race. \u201cWe\u2019re flipping the day,\u201d he says in a phone interview. “Breakfast runs at noon. The afternoon meal comes at 4 or 5 pm. The main meal? Two o\u2019clock in the morning, so we have to change the time of working. Last race weekend, the kitchen did 150 covers at 3 am. Not a quiet late-night service but rather a full kitchen, full team, cooking to order. I came here in the morning, and all the people were sitting there. Chefs were cooking. You turn everything around.”<\/p>\n The same mentality runs across every Hilton property in the partnership<\/p>\n Hilton<\/p>\n That kind of operation doesn\u2019t happen by accident. Jakobi starts planning five months out. Special menus are written and signed off with F1 team nutritionists and performance managers who arrive months in advance to go through everything. “For breakfast, the drivers will typically have avocado with egg. For the afternoon, only a little corn, rice and chicken. And when they\u2019re coming back in the night, something more, a little heavier food.” <\/p>\n During race weekend itself, he runs his standard team of 120 kitchen staff plus a minimum of 80 additional casuals, each trained four or five times before the weekend, all of them assigned a specific role. He\u2019s also running catering at Turn 6 on the circuit, which does 2,500 covers a day, every day of race weekend. “It is not only food,” Jakobi says. “It is also the quality of what the guests are expecting. They’re paying a certain amount of money. They’re expecting a certain quality.”<\/p>\n That balance of comfort and ambition is something Hilton\u2019s own data reflects. According to its 2026 Trends Report, 79% of travellers say familiar menu items bring comfort on the road, yet 72% still go out of their way to seek out local food and drink traditions. Race weekend guests want both. They want the reliability of a world-class hotel kitchen and the specificity of where they actually are. Jakobi’s menus are built to deliver exactly that.<\/p>\n The same mentality runs across every Hilton property in the partnership. At Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, General Manager Robert Lacle describes the Miami Grand Prix weekend as a total transformation of the property. “It is an electrically charged weekend in South Florida, and we are delighted to be a part of it,” he says in an email interview. “It is important to generate excitement and keep the energy high.” <\/p>\n The culinary team, which works alongside restaurant partners Takato and Vitolo, builds welcome amenities in honor of the race. Last race, they created madeleines coated in white chocolate accented with orange, milk chocolate Formula 1 vehicles on a white chocolate Grand Prix course display. Encouraging words embroidered on pillowcases in VIP suites and McLaren orange are woven into staff uniforms and hotel accents throughout. \u201cCreating the ambiance starts the minute guests arrive,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n At Hilton Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, Cluster General Manager Nader Halim frames the F&B philosophy with an analogy that captures the whole operation neatly. “Race weekends are all about energy and precision, and that extends to our kitchens,” he says in an email interview. “We run our food and beverage operations like a pit crew, fast, focused and ready to keep fans and teams refueled. From quick bites to full meals, everything is designed to help guests recharge so they can stay in the heart of the action.”<\/p>\n