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Driver superstitions & quirks ...


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#51 onepablo

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Posted 04 May 2004 - 19:56

Originally posted by Mihai


The drivers themselves are paying much attention to signs, coincidences, things that one can consider as common, but in their mind all these are taking symbolic proportions. The thought of failure, fear of death or simply the anxiousness before every start - all of these are disturbing their inner equilibrium. I think it comes easy to understand why so many race drivers have superstitions or strange behaviour (dressing rituals) in the tensed moments before the start.



There was a university study a few years ago that looked into the prevalence of superstitions in american major league baseball players. Interestingly, sluggers were found to be much more likely to have superstitions/rituals than pitchers; this difference being attributed to the different psycholgical angles these players faced (i.e., hitters having less control over the outcome of a play in comparison to pitchers).

I wonder if today's drivers (with such safe cars and tracks) are less superstitious than those from F1's yesteryears, when death and injury was much more common.

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#52 GIGLEUX

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Posted 04 May 2004 - 23:00

Originally posted by ensign14
The problem with this is that Masetti, to my knowledge, is the only person who died with this number. What about Cissac's 48 from much earlier? Loraine Barrow's 5? Marcel Renault's 63? All those at Indy before 1926? None of these were tabooed.


No, Torchy had n°13 when he met his death during the 1925 GP of San Sebastian with a 2 liter 2LCV Delage GP.

#53 man

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Posted 04 November 2004 - 21:25

Originally posted by stuartbrs
At the British GP in 93, James Hunt remarks about Senna`s inside out gloves, and theres quite clear footage of them...you can see Senna relaxing his grip on the wheel down the straight and scrunching his fingers up to stave off cramp...


Which is quite significant for not only racing enthusiasts, but for those who are spiritual, as Hunt apparently died some weeks before the British GP :confused:

#54 Twin Window

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Posted 04 November 2004 - 21:52

Hi man :wave:

I think Jean-Maurice meant the European GP...

#55 theunions

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Posted 04 November 2004 - 22:39

After the 1999 CART season (I don't know if this pertains to Forsythe teammate Greg Moore's death or not), Patrick Carpentier insisted on changing from the traditional Forsythe #33 to #32 because the former was somehow inherently bad luck (this did not, however, stop him whatsoever from using #33 in 1998-99). Anyone know more about this?

#56 man

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Posted 04 November 2004 - 22:45

Originally posted by Twin Window
Hi man :wave:

I think Jean-Maurice meant the European GP...


I know, it was just bad sarcasm on my part. :blush:

#57 stuartbrs

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Posted 05 November 2004 - 02:22

I think Jean-Maurice meant the European GP...



who is Jean-Maurice? :confused:

#58 condor

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Posted 05 November 2004 - 12:47

Originally posted by David Beard
Am I the only one of the opinion that a cool, professional racing driver should not be into all this mumbo jumbo?

I bet Michael Schumacher doesn't have silly mascots, favourite underpants, inside out clothing, etc, etc.



He has four leaf clovers to find before a race :)

http://forums.atlasf...threadid=21249

#59 grandprixhelmets

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Posted 17 May 2005 - 08:30

I have never seen Ayrton Senna actually wear gloves inside out, nor have I seen any pictures of Ayrton wearing ANY gloves inside out.

As was stated earlier in this post OMP's Mito glove (Still to this day the one of the best gloves I've ever used) had the seams on the outside for comfort. This could appear to those not familiar with the gloves that they were inside out. They absolutely were not!

I remember vividly the point in BBC's coverage of the 1993 British Grand Prix when a guest commentator while viewing an in car shot of Ayrton on the hangar straight taking his hands off the steering wheel. The commentator got pretty animated at how close Senna got to the corner before his hands returned to the wheel remarking that he (Senna) "had an amazing presence of mind" - The commentator was none other than Jackie Stewart.

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#60 Graham Clayton

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Posted 05 March 2012 - 06:11

David Coulthard's lucky underpants?
(which I believe he still carried round long after they'd been cut off after an accident?)


American stock car driver Sean Caisse talks about his lucky boxer shorts:


Edited by Graham Clayton, 05 March 2012 - 06:12.