F1's newest hospitality idea is dinner for 12 on the back of a truck, at Spa
Twelve seats, one truck, and a very long waiting list
Formula 1 has never struggled to invent new tiers of exclusivity, but this one is unusually literal. The Out Lap is a fine-dining restaurant built into a container, mounted on the back of a flatbed truck, and driven around a grand prix circuit while twelve guests eat dinner. It debuted at Spa-Francorchamps, which for a Belgian audience makes it rather more than a curiosity.
How it actually works
The truck follows a route tailored to each grand prix, serving courses as it moves and stopping at the circuit's landmark corners so guests can step out and take in the place properly. The package also includes guided access to the main paddock and a private visit to the Cool Down Room, the space where drivers decompress immediately after a race and where almost nobody outside the sport ever sets foot.
The food and the sponsor
The partner is Moet Hennessy, the wines and spirits arm of LVMH, and the pairings come from its portfolio. Menus are curated locally by renowned chefs at each venue rather than shipped in wholesale, so the Spa edition is meant to taste different from whatever follows at the next European round. It is a sensible piece of design: the one thing a travelling restaurant can genuinely offer is a different place each time.
The storytellers
Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve are on board as ambassadors, and their role is the part that actually sounds worth the money. Both recount pivotal moments from their careers at the exact corners where those moments happened, which at Spa gives them a great deal of material to work with.
What it costs, sort of
Nobody is publishing a price. The Out Lap is positioned as an add-on for Paddock Club pass holders, and a three-day Paddock Club pass already runs comfortably into five figures before anyone opens a bottle. Twelve seats per session at each race is about as narrow as hospitality gets, so the number is likely to stay quiet.
Where it runs
For this season The Out Lap is limited to European rounds, having launched at Spa. F1 has not confirmed whether it travels further afield in 2027, though a concept this portable is unlikely to stay on one continent for long.
AutoNext Take
It would be easy to file this under yet another way for Formula 1 to charge the wealthy more money, and that criticism is not wrong. But strip away the champagne and the idea underneath is genuinely good: stopping at Eau Rouge with a former world champion explaining what happened there is the kind of access no grandstand ticket buys, and circuits are far more interesting from inside them than from a seat above.
The practical question nobody seems to have asked is whether a tasting menu survives Spa's elevation changes. Anyone who has been driven up through Raidillon knows the sensation, and it is not obviously compatible with a full glass. Perhaps that is what the stops are really for.
