This just been posted on the Autosport photo gallery for British F3 at Spa.

Apparently from the cockpit of a chap named Esteban Gutierrez.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_day_of_the...e_Hindu_Sabbath

Surely he should have St Joseph in the car if anything? Hang on is it Joseph or Christopher that protects one from harm?

Even if the British drivers may have been christened when young, have occasionally attended church in childhood, very few British people are religious. Compared to the grip of Catholicism in Latin America, Christianity barely gets a look-in these days in the UK.

I would be very surprised to hear if Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton prays, for example.

I'm pretty sure that Lewis is a Catholic...exactly how religous I'm not sure though.



However looking at that, he is fairly religious.

From http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2...15875-20024022/

That was at the end of the 20o8 season for the record.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/dec/0...-lewis-hamilton

Where do you ground that Buemi is a Muslim? Alguersuari is Catalan, and therefore propably catholic. I don't think anyone of them is a Muslim.

Could be that this rumour is based on the fact that he's a Bahrain resident: http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/othe...in?artid=104353

Nascar and CART have (had, in the latter) special programs that would allow religious drivers to have a Sunday service at the track (or close by) because it was difficult for the drivers to go to a specific Church on race day.
I think F1, being European, may have never thought of doing something like that.

shaggy

Senna was a devout Catholic, and so is Hamilton. Schumacher and Brundle are likely Catholics as well (I've seem them wear crosses). Frank Williams was given last rites after his near-fatal accident that left him paralyzed. Massa's mom is always holding Catholic beads when he's racing. Practically all Brazilians are Catholic. The Ferrari boys are all Catholic as well. From time to time they give Ferraris as gifts to the Pope for charity purposes.

Religiosity is quite high among professional athletes, probably more so than in the general population. If you follow boxing and MMA you'll notice that virtually all major fighters identify themselves as Christians of some sort. But that's getting off topic...

They can't be proper catholics since they all work on Sundays.

Indeed despite what people on the outer may think of F1 drivers, they tend not to be at the dimwit end of the human race.
There is plenty of evidence that many F1 drivers do indeed have a deep faith in a God, higher power, deity or whatever you would like to refer to faith as. The proximity to death tends to focus the mind about the unseen and the meaning to life. When drivers come together in solemn moments like we sometimes see there is a very healthy respect for each others views on things like an afterlife. Which is of course how the human race should behave all the time.

Felipe Massa

Q. Do you want to thank anyone?

FM: "First of all I want to thank God. Then I want to thank the doctors at the race track and at Budapest's AEK hospital, who have done a lot for me, and Dino Altmann, who came with my family from Brazil and who was extraordinary over the last days. But I also want to thank everybody who prayed and who wrote to me via my own and Ferrari's website, hoping that everything went well.

"So many people wrote to me, also many who aren't interested in Formula 1, but had heard about what happened to me: thank you so much and I want to tell them that I'm praying also for them. I would have done the same if an accident had happened to another driver: I would have prayed for him that everything went well."


So for the original question in this topic, I guess they do have mass, service or whatever to cater for various religious needs of the drivers and team members but we hear nothing about it. It is clearly very important to a number of drivers.

I don't much care what the drivers worship, if anything. It's none of my business and I don't think it should be up to F1 organizers to cater specifically to any participant's faith other than to respect their right to have (or not have) one and allow them the time and space they need to observe whatever rituals they want (or don't want).

I can confirm that Schumacher and Alesi are catholics. They visited the Pope back in 2000, and both kissed his hand.

His catholic 'counterpart' is Saint Eloy http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/12-01.htm

They may well be, but could a Ferrari driver get away with not kissing the Pope's hand?

But seriously, religious beliefs of F1 drivers, interesting - hadn't considered it. I would have thought that to be a successful driver you would want to place your faith, such as it is, in the mechanics and engineers rather than some unworldly entity. I am not exactly au fait with non-western religions, but I don't think that turning the other cheek is a strategy that is going to get you much success on the track. It's a competitive environment where some will do whatever it takes to win. I also find it hard to reconcile someone not bearing false witness with Monaco 2006, Hungary 2007, and Australia 2009.

It is the fisherman's ring they kiss, the ring is one of the two official seals of the papacy. If you meet he Pope and he offers you his hand, you shake hands if you are not a Catholic, if Catholic you kiss the ring in respect and recognition that he is the successor to St Peter.

Keep the thread on topic.

Ahhh, I didn't know there were different rules... I would have just copied whatever the person before had done and hoped they weren't a close personal friend...

Ferrari have good contacts if they need a clergyman to say mass, Luca di Montezemolo's cousin is a cardinal based in St Paul's Basilica outside the walls in Rome, where St Paul is buried.

Does anybody knows what symbol di Grassi got on his helmet. It looks like the star of David and an eagle, but what does it mean ?
Religion ?

Once I read somewhere that Di Grassi was not religious. I remember because it was unusual, given that most other Brazilian drivers were believers.

Ok,thanks for the answer. I don´t think he got that symbol on his helmet any longer.
So you can be right.

I seem to remember Lewis also feeling sorry and apologizing for a transscript from a in car radio communications (or something) a few years ago. I'm not sure if he was apologizing/sorry because he had been misquoted as saying the F word, and wanted to let people now he felt bad about him being misquoted. Or if he had said the F word and apologized for saying it. This indicates a strong religious view (as swearing is generally not accepted in Christianity).

Depends on what's their religion is. And the Bible doesn't say you have to rest on Sunday.

Schumacher is christianed as a Chatolic but he said he doesn't go to Chrurch. He believes in God but "not in the way the (Catholic) church says". He also prays. That's what he said about his beliefs.

The insidiousness of religion is bad enough as it is - thinking it has a right to stick it's nose in everywhere.

If individual drivers want to believe in a sky-daddy, that's their business, but it is certainly not the role of the FIA or any body to spunk their money on adults who still believe in faries.

Re. Catholicism - It is such a corrupt organisation that it claims anybody who has been "baptised" a catholic - with or without their consent - as one of their own. I know I was baptised as a kid (not catholic - methodist I think), but I certainly am not a member of their illogical belief system and don't believe in their "god". If I had been baptised a catholic they would list me as one of them, regardless of whether you renounce their silly induction procedure if not.

"Religion - Shit it", as Stephen Fry once said.

Sounds like that Argentinian guy who drove for Minardi about a decade ago, Truero. He's so religious that he refuses to race with the numbers thirteen or seventeen because of their religious significance. I wonder if any Italian has driven car number seventeen before; seventeen in Latin is XVII, which is an anagram for VIXI, which translates as "I have seen" or "I have died". Seveteen is the Italian equivalent of the number thirteen; buildings in Italy often skip the seventeenth floor, Alitalia flights don't have a seat seventeen, and the Renault 17 was sold as the Renault 117.

True story.


It could be anything. Sebastian Vettel has the crest of his home town on the front of his helmet, right in front of his mouth. Di Grassi's symbol actually looks like it could be a college or school or something.

Please keep on topic. There have been a couple of warnings from the admins allready. This post does not ask what your views on religion is.