13 replies to this topic

[wembi]

I recently read in a respected F1 magazine, that Nelson Piquet (who was quite a prankster in his days), played a rather vicious joke on his own mechanics during a private testing session in 1983. Piquet who was driving a Brabham then, went out on the Silverstone track for a couple of laps. After posting a few quick ones and indicating that he would try to even go quicker, the Brabham of Piquet came the next time round at a much slower speed, by the start/finish line where his whole team was standing by the wall. The engine was running, the car was rolling...but no one could see the head of the driver!

Had he had an incident? Did he have a collision with an object on the back side of the track? Did Piquet...get...get...oh no, DECAPITATED??? The car eventually thumped itself against the guardrail and
everyone went running at full speed to it... and they found it, empty. All the way on the other side of the track ( by the pit entry way), a much LIVING Nelson Piquet, was rolling on the grass laughing his ass off at his crew members.

He had jumped out of the car before the car had gone by the pit straight...just to, as he called it" bring a bit more excitment to the Testing session".

Anyway, I must admit that although this was a cruel joke from Piquet, I loved it! Those were the good old days.

If you have a funny (TRUE) story about an F1 driver playing pranks or being the target of prank, please feel free to share it.

Thanks,

W.

[mahelgel]

Berger was quite known for his practical jokes (like throwing Senna's briefcase out the helicopter (in air), and he have taken the ignition key out and thrown it out the window while Senna was driving to the track (at least i think it was Senna..)

I also think that Mika Hakkinen is quite funny when interviewed (very dry humor but still...). Eddie Irvine has also had a few funny statements, but in general it seems that much of the caracther of the drivers have been "taken away". Don't think the sponsors would approve of too much "unprofessional" behaviour today

[Ross Stonefeld]

I heard a story once from 93 when Mika was first starting as Mclaren test driver he and Ron Dennis and some others were driving a hire car to the circuit and the gate guard (who was female) didnt recognise them and was grilling them and Mika apparently got out of the car and offered to be frisked.

Legend has it Ron Dennis found it quite amusing and said "this one's going to be trouble"

[RiverRunner]

Anybody in racing pretty much *has* to have a sense of humor and I've been a victim/made victims of every racer I've ever been involved in.
I'm sure the same is true in F-1,though not as publicly on view.
In my years in drags,a rainout was an invitation to all sorts of evil doing/pranks throughout the pits.

[Haggis Geezer]

If they have a sense of humour or not, the first post tells it's own story. No-one would get away with that these days, and the sponsor bum licking and PC pre, post and any other time interviews are not all that amusing.


The trouble with F1 is that a spade is always a spade, unless the sponsor's hat says "earth rearranging implement".

Then again - you would imagine that they would all have to see the funny side of driving in the Bernie Circus.

HG.

[AlesiGOD]

Jan Magnussen being interviewed...

"So Jan we hear you like alcohol?"

"I don't like it, I only drink it for the effect!"

[confucius]

did anyone read the Berger/Alesi article in F1Racing a few issues back? Apparently they rolled Jean Todt's car after nicking it. Can't imagine Rubens and Michael doing anything so outrageous now.....actually those red wigs in Malaysia were pretty "wild" weren't they? Troublemakers those two.

[Gudrun]

In one of the F 1 RACING Magazines I found the following:
When Jenson Button was asked, if driving is better than sex,
he answered: "I san't say it's better, but it is a lot less messy. :B
Button - the new Irvine.

[david_martin]

Nelson Piquet and Gerhard Berger were undoubtedly the most recent and infamous driver/clowns in the paddock.

I read where Paul Rosche, BMW's engine guru, was accustomed to taking an after lunch nap for about 20 minutes during test sessions - in his BMW 7 series. At Paul Ricard during a test, Nelson got hold of some rags and a little diesel and built (with one of his mechanics help) a home made smoke bomb. The bomb was put into Rosches car and set off once he was asleep. The whole Brabham garage were invited to watch the sheer terror on Rosche's face as he woke in the car cabin full of thick white smoke

Of course, Nelson's most famous trick was played on his Williams teammate Nigel Mansell (although the was not much mateship in that pairing - they hated each other). At Mexico in 1986 Nigell was ill with a very bad dose of diahorrea. Nelson stole all the toilet paper from Nigell's trailer

[bs]

Berger and Senna again:

I read somewhere that Senna had a large pile of documents (passport, etc.) that Berger superglued into one large brick.

I think he (Berger) also replaced Senna's passport picture with a pic of Gerhard's naked rear end.

[mahelgel]

I also believe that Berger once put all of Senna's stuff in the hotel swimingpool once...

[Gruff]

According to a magazine, what happened with Senna's passport was that Berger cut out his face and pasted a small picture of a topless model.

[Vunz]

Irvine during the british GP in '94:

When Eddie Jordan asked him to take part in a photo shoot of all the British drivers he replied, "Do I have to? Send out some ****er in my helmet, they'll never know the difference".

[coyoteBR]

During a GP of Mexico, Nigel mansell was making many stops in the pits during the free practices. His Teamate, Nelson Piquet, soon noticed this have nothing to do with technical adjustments: nigel was suffering from Montezuma Illnes, having to make several incursions to the bathroom.
So, Nelson waited Mansell to return to the racing track, and sneacked in every bathroon around stealing the toilet papers.
You can imagine Mansell's expressions the next time he needed to make an emergency stop.