33 replies to this topic

[AllTwelve]

Please pardon if this has been done before (Piquet Sr. thread), but this topic deserves another go... I'll be first - heard a story about Mark Donahue. When he was starting out, he used to tow his race car with something like a big Pontiac station wagon. He rigged a fuel line from a separate little tank that was filled with kerosine. From a button on the dash, he could inject some kerosine into the carburator, which resulted in a massive cloud of black smoke out the back - kind of like the way a squid uses ink to escape! I'm assuming he only did this when he wasn't towing If you've heard this one, please feel free to add anything (corrections) to the story.

Next...

[Captain Tightpants]

Gerhard Berger once replaced Ayrton Senna's passport photo with a picture of male genitals. When Senna got held at customs because of it, he worked out who is was and superglued all of Berger's credit cards together. There was another incident where one of them (I can't remember which one) filled the other's hotel bed with frogs. When the other found the frogs and mentioned that he'd spent an hour catching them all, the prankster asked if he'd foud the snake. In response, the victim placed strong cheese in an air vent.

[FigJam]

Berger threw Sennas briefcase out of a private jet while travelling....

[LucaP]

M. Schumacher once patted on Zanardi's jacket pocket...after he had put one egg in it..
afterwards, as a revenge, Alex hung Michael's clothes on the flagpoles on the start/finish straight

I think this happened in some Benetton testing in 1992 ?)

[AllTwelve]

another... Toine Hezemann, Alfa factory driver Sebring '71 - drives the golf kart into the pool, starts foodfight at dinner table, wakes up team mates with a morning fire bottle... all at the posh Harder Hall - classic.

[Myrvold]

Berger threw Sennas briefcase out of a private jet while travelling....

Ye, Senna said that his breifcase couldn't be destroyed (or something like that). Then Gerhard decided to check it out, but did they find the briefcase?

[JacnGille]

Berger threw Sennas briefcase out of a private jet while travelling....

Didn't passenger's briefcases in Gilles Villeneuve's helicopter seldom make it to their destination?

[FigJam]

Ye, Senna said that his breifcase couldn't be destroyed (or something like that). Then Gerhard decided to check it out, but did they find the briefcase?

I think they eventually did...but can't remember, not totally sure.

Didn't passenger's briefcases in Gilles Villeneuve's helicopter seldom make it to their destination?

I've heard many things regarding Gilles, Jody Scheckter...but that one I haven't heard with the helicopter and briefcases. I've read that Gilles used to scare the **** out of Jody while flying his helicopter.

Didn't Berger once pull the handbrake up on Alesi in a car when at Maranello once? With the car ending up on its roof? I think Jacques Villeneuve did that once to Mika Salo also, while on an icy road, almost killing themselves in the process.

[Rob G]

In 1958, Harry Schell's mini-car was carried up the stairs in a French hotel by several of his colleagues.

At the 2008 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, I saw Corvette drivers Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell flinging bottles of water at a porta-john. Eventually, Jorg Bergmeister emerged from it with a bemused look on his face.

[teejay]

The Nico Rosberg Britney photo has to be a classic

[slideways]

I think the stories are mixed and it was Berger throwing Senna's briefcase out of a chopper. It's a great story.

[Marc Sproule]

Two different incidents from my days of covering the Formula Atlantic series......

'77, Quebec City, the post season banquet to celebrate Gilles' second straight championship. In a hotel ballroom and, if I remember correctly, we had been advised not to consume all our bread rolls during the meal.

After Gilles had collected all his rewards the bread rolls came flying out of the audience, toward the stage and Gilles.

Gilles being Gilles, he rapidly collected them and placed them in a receptacle, quite possibly his championship trophy. It was his turn then and he fired them all around the room.

'78, a post-race dinner at a motel where many of us were staying during the weekend at Westwood, east of Vancouver.

There were 15-20 customers in the restaurant, all of us from the series. I had been dining with driver Howdy Holmes, team owner Doug Shierson and wrench Don "Sneeters" Schnieders.

After we had eaten, sugar cubes started raining down on various tables. My recollection is that it was Dave White, Kevin Cogan's team manager/chief wrench who was doing the cube tossing.

Bread rolls soon joined the fray and everyone in the room joined in, including the wait staff.

When we all had had our fun we all pitched in and helped clean up the debris. Once our table was cleared Howdy generously gathered up our four bills from dinner and signed them.

"Thanks, Howdy," we all said.

"Don't thank me, thank Chris Harrison!" Harrison was team principal when Gilles won his championships and in '78 Price Cobb was the driver.

Harrison was also staying at the motel and Howdy knew what his room number was.

Definitely a different world in those glorious days.

[HP]

There have been threads similar to that in the past here. Maybe a search on this BB will bring up more of those stories.

[Crafty]

Gerhard Berger once replaced Ayrton Senna's passport photo with a picture of male genitals. When Senna got held at customs because of it, he worked out who is was and superglued all of Berger's credit cards together. There was another incident where one of them (I can't remember which one) filled the other's hotel bed with frogs. When the other found the frogs and mentioned that he'd spent an hour catching them all, the prankster asked if he'd foud the snake. In response, the victim placed strong cheese in an air vent.

The frog thing was Berger again, he knew Ayrton was a perfectionist / a bit OCD. Ayrton knew who had done it of course, Berger asked how many he had caught and then told him that he had put that number plus one in the room, knowing Ayrton would spend ages looking for the last one that wasn't there

[OssieFan]

Someone (a team member I assume) put boxing gloves on Senna's steering wheel after his altercation with Eddie Irvine at Japan '93.

I remember seeing footage of Berger and a cake going into someones face (Irvine?) circa 1995.

[Bloggsworth]

Yamamoto came into the paddock and pretended he was a Formula 1 driver..... Oh no - That was Kolles pretending he was running an F1 team!

[Lifew12]

Didn't Berger once pull the handbrake up on Alesi in a car when at Maranello once? With the car ending up on its roof?

I believe the car Jean was driving at the time belonged to jean Todt....

Anyone looking for tales like these needs only to investigate the legendary '82 'Drivers Strike' in South Africa.

[Chezrome]

Mario Andretti about a prank that Ronnie Peterson pulled on him, shortly after the Dutch Grand Prix of 1978:

"Last week after some testing at Monza, a friend asks me to drive this little Fiat 127 back to the Villa D'Este on Lake Como. Ronnie Peterson's following in a 280 Mercedes and I ask him to push me when we hit the steep grade that takes you up into Como. The Swede gets in tight behind me all right and we're bumper to bumper and going like a bat up that hill. Then when we hit the top, I look in the mirror and Ronnie's all scrunched over the wheel—like Jimmy Cagney at Indy in The Crowd Roars—and he's laughing! The guy's gonna keep pushing—downhill!

"So we come pouring off that ridge flat-out, at about 120 miles an hour, and the car ain't built for more than 90, and the motor's going phut-phut-phut and I'm like this"—Andretti saws away at an imaginary wheel—"and then we're coming into this red intersection. I kind of squinch my eyes and pray. Zip-zip! We're through.

"There's a car coming in from the right—a Lancia I think—and the driver's all buggy-eyed, cranking the wheel. He probably figured he was hallucinating. Anyway, when we get to the hotel and shut off the motor, we can't get it started again. Every valve in that Fiat must of been bent sideways." Andretti shakes his head and laughs. "Heck, we took more chances on that ride than we would in 50 GPs."

[KnucklesAgain]

Didn't Berger once pull the handbrake up on Alesi in a car when at Maranello once? With the car ending up on its roof?

Yeah, upon entering the Ferrari courtyard in Jean Todt's new Lancia or something, when Todt had told them to please bring it back in one piece

[Bloggsworth]

I was once told that Ronnie Peterson bet his passenger that he could go from the start of the M1 to the Silverstone turn-off, on Grand Prix day, without dropping below 100MPH...

[KnucklesAgain]

I think the stories are mixed and it was Berger throwing Senna's briefcase out of a chopper. It's a great story.

And didn't the briefcase contain Senna's newly signed McLaren contract that he had just proudly presented to Berger?

[d246]

I remember Berger taking R Dennis on a lap round susuka during GP weekend in either an F1 or an NSX and rolling it in the gravel.

[d246]

And didn't the briefcase contain Senna's newly signed McLaren contract that he had just proudly presented to Berger?

It was Senna arriving for the flight showing off his 'indistructible' carbon fibre brief case which Berger promptly threw out the helecopter once airborne.

[ralphrj]

I remember Berger taking R Dennis on a lap round susuka during GP weekend in either an F1 or an NSX and rolling it in the gravel.

It was Suzuka in 1993 and it was Ron Dennis demonstrating the prototype McLaren F1 road car to Gerhard Berger.

Ron crashed it at the first corner.

Ron was distraught. Berger had hysterics.

Berger called a press conference in the media centre to ensure that the entire world found out about it.

[Rob]

I think this was when they were at Benetton, but Berger and Alesi were both at a test session. Berger was driving on a wet track and returned to the pits. Knowing that Alesi was about to take the car out, he said that the other half of the track was dry - they needed to take some downforce off and put slicks on. The mechanics did this and sent Alesi on his way. Anyway, the track wasn't dry, it was very much the opposite. Cue Alesi shouting abuse through his radio as he span round and round.

[midgrid]

It was Suzuka in 1993 and it was Ron Dennis demonstrating the prototype McLaren F1 road car to Gerhard Berger.

Ron crashed it at the first corner.

Ron was distraught. Berger had hysterics.

Berger called a press conference in the media centre to ensure that the entire world found out about it.

Reminds me of Antonio Pizzonia binning a Jaguar road car when he drove for the marque's F1 team.

[AllTwelve]

... not really a prank, but could have been to some! Bob Grossman shared a good story regarding LeMans in the early '70s. Having wrapped up night practice, Bob was on his way back to his hotel driving a Maserati Ghibli coupe. He got to a long straight stretch of road, and gave the Ghibli a go. Mind you this was a fairly narrow two way road lined with trees etc. Traveling at around 145, he saw in his rearview some headlights. They were coming fast... VERY fast. With the Maser accelerator pedal firmly planted, these headlights quickly turned into a pair of Gulf Porsche 917s that wooshed by him at over 200 MPH, with a wake that almost blew him off the road. Pedro was for sure driving one, but not sure who was driving the other.

Edited by AllTwelve, 23 December 2010 - 18:18.

[DavidJoeF1]

In the movie "Grand Prix", the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix was the setting. There is a scene where the drivers are gathered and as Graham Hill walks past Jochen Rindt and Dan Gurney sitting on a small flight of stairs - as Hill walks up the steps, Rindt palyfullytrips him. Hill looks around at Gurney and Dan points at Rindt who has a big grin.

This was not part of the script but the director, Frankenheimer, left it in because it was so perfect.

Great stuff!

[stevewf1]

And didn't the briefcase contain Senna's newly signed McLaren contract that he had just proudly presented to Berger?

I remember reading that briefcase also contained Senna's personal Bible, which had various notes Senna had made over time.

[Villes Gilleneuve]

Gerhard Berger once replaced Ayrton Senna's passport photo with a picture of male genitals. When Senna got held at customs because of it, he worked out who is was and superglued all of Berger's credit cards together.ese in an air vent.

Today, Senna would still be waterboarding at gitmo for that.

[Villes Gilleneuve]

Great prank by Senna on Prost:



After they both squealed to a stop, they exited laughing and were the best of friends. Good times.

[Villes Gilleneuve]

found one: the Brabham fan car:



Led Walter Wolf to do this:



I can't find it, but on the pit fan cover, someone wrote, "Bernie Sucks".

[ivanalesi]

You know sometimes the mechanics are putting note stickers on the steering wheel to warn the drivers of smth, but sometimes there are some good jokes!
I got a pic of Pippa Mann from Monaco in WSbR, she was amazingly slow - 7/8 sec off the pace in the best team, the note on the steering wheel was with bold capital letters: BRAKE LATER!

[artista]

In the one I know, the driver was the victim. I’ve read McLaren’s mechanics put something inside Räikkönen’s gloves and he ended up with his hands dyed in blue.