Lewis Hamilton won the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix in Ferrari red on Sunday. George Russell crossed the line second for Mercedes, with Lando Norris completing the podium in third. Three Brits on the rostrum at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – and Jeremy Clarkson had thoughts.

Two of them, in quick succession, on X:

“Great to see three Brits on the podium in Barcelona,” Clarkson posted. “Just a shame the winner was sponsored by an Italian beer.” The follow-up landed immediately after: “One day, I hope Hawkstone is big enough to sponsor an F1 team. But which one?”

Hawkstone Has the Momentum – the Question Is Scale

For anyone who’s watched Clarkson’s Farm or followed his increasingly loud side-hustle in British hospitality, the ambition isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound.

Hawkstone launched in 2021 as a collaboration between Clarkson and the Cotswold Brew Co, built around barley grown on Diddly Squat Farm.

What started as a farm shop product has grown considerably since then. The Sunday Times named Hawkstone one of Britain’s 100 fastest-growing companies in 2024, and it climbed to number 23 on that list in 2025.

This isn’t the first time Clarkson has tangled Hawkstone up with Formula 1, either. During the Monaco Grand Prix, he promised to buy the entire Alpine team a pint if Esteban Ocon made the podium. Ocon did, and Clarkson delivered a tractor-load of Hawkstone to the factory.

What he hadn’t accounted for was the headcount. He called to ask whether to bring fifty pints, maybe a hundred.

The answer was just shy of a thousand.

So the affection for the sport is genuine. The branding instinct is there. The growth trajectory is real. What’s missing is the kind of commercial firepower that gets a logo onto an F1 sidepod – an exercise that starts at around $10 million a year for a midfield team and scales dramatically from there.

Which Team, Though?

Clarkson left the question open, which was either genuine uncertainty or savvy engagement-baiting. Probably both. The obvious answer, given his existing Alpine connection and the fact that their Enstone factory sits close to Diddly Squat in Oxfordshire, is Alpine. But obvious isn’t always right. And a British beer brand aligning with a British team would tell a cleaner story. That points toward Williams or McLaren, depending on how patriotic you fancy being.

Ferrari, naturally, is off the table. They’ve already got their Italian beer situation sorted, as Clarkson was kind enough to point out.