Formula 1 drivers dicking about

[tommykl]

I recently started reading through Pierre Ménard's brilliant, but often badly edited Encyclopedia of Formula One, and Bernard Cahier's foreword features a whole lot of interesting anecdotes.

One that particularly interested me happened a few nights before the 1958 French Grand Prix, when Mike Hawthorn, Luigi Musso, Maurice Trintignant and Cahier himself winched Harry Schell's Vespa up to the first floor balcony of his hotel room, much to Schell's general dismay.

And it got me thinking. What other instances are there of Formula One drivers generally mucking about and causing mischief everywhere they went? The crazier the better!

[Miguel98]

I don't think we can talk about F1 drivers dicking about without mentioning Gerhard Berger and Ayrton Senna.

[Londoner]

I read a story about Jean Alesi and a certain mischievous Austrian getting into some bother at Fiorano. Ferrari were planning to launch their 1995 car, when Alesi and Berger, wanting to kill some time, decided to go for a drive in a brand new car that they found parked up at the circuit. It was a Lancia Y10. What they didn't realise was that this particular car belonged to a Mr J.Todt...

Suffice to say, a few minutes later, the car is on its roof, after Berger pulled the handbrake whilst Alesi was driving, as he thought Alesi was driving too conservatively. Alesi has to go to the hospital for a checkup. A short while later, the owner of said car wanted to know what had happened. Berger mentioned that he and Alesi had put some "slight curb marks on the roof".

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Gerhard Berger. 'nuff said.

In Michael Cannell's Phil Hill/Wolfgang von Trips biography "The Limit" (a book I would highly recommend that also includes the aforementioned Cahier anecdote), there's a humorous account of a stopover in Montevideo when members of the Ferrari team including Peter Collins and von Trips were en route to Argentina for the beginning of the 1957 season. As it says in the book:

After the two week Atlantic crossing their ship stopped in Montevideo for two days. Collins vanished into the city with a young Brazilian woman he had met on shipboard. They had not returned when the steamer prepared to disembark. "The ship's horn sounded," von Trips wrote in his diary. "We looked everywhere onboard...It was horrible. Would he be left behind? How would he make it with no luggage and no money?"
Von Trips pleaded in vain with the captain to wait, then stationed himself at the railing. As the ship edged away from its berth Collins appeared on the quay, running among piles of freight and pulling his girlfriend behind. "There he stood, wondering what to do next," von Trips wrote in his diary. "He had a shock when he saw all the water separating him from the ship."
Collins and his companion jumped into an old skiff and inveigled the crew to cast off. "So began a wild chase," von Trips wrote in his diary. "We were already picking up speed. All the people who were off-duty, the cooks with their tall white hats and passengers of all classes were on deck. They were desperately trying to catch us. Sailors lowered a rope ladder, but in vain. With two others I went back to the captain. 'Slow speed ahead' came the order, and with sweet and sour smiles both our refugees came on board. A raucous and enchanting evening followed."

That's the part I most vividly remember from the book. There were almost certainly more humorous accounts that I don't remember so well (it's been a few years since I read it). I must re-read it, especially now that I've literally just dug it out again to find the quote!

[DOSBoot]

This should really be called "The Gerhard Berger Prankster Thread" simply he is that.

One of my favorites form him was when he switched Senna's passport photo with what was described as "male genitalia". Due to Senna's popularity, he was rarely checked for a passport when traveling, and apparently carried it with him without noticing for several months. When Senna finally did get checked, he was detained for over 24 hours.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

This should really be called "The Gerhard Berger Prankster Thread" simply he is that.

In fact I should really just leave these here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KEaZW5YOVo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy7uk7MOeF4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uoz_7FIWcmw

[Rob Dylan]

Obligatory Berger memory first:
At the Monaco Grand Prix, must have been late 90s because Murray was still commenting. Berger pestered Brundle (both drivers retired at this point) during the gridwalk, and whilst Brundle was distracted in an interview with Ron Dennis, Berger pulled out his microphone cable from his back without him noticing on live television! I remember Murray's reaction was something along the lines of "this is the same Gerhard Berger who was in a helicopter with Ayrton Senna and asked 'Is this your suitcase?', to which Senna replied 'Yes', to which Gerhard proceeded to throw said suitcase out of the helicopter as a joke".

There was a time during the same year where Schumacher started "interview-bombing" the ITV crew for a while, he would just walk into interviews on the grid and in the pitlane like, "hey guys what's up". There was a video on youtube - which has since been taken down as far as I can tell - of the tv crew at Brazil one year, and Schumacher trying to prank them again, which Brundle was prepared for and managed to nick Schumacher's Ferrari hat off his head. If I remember correctly they gave it away along with their regular prize that weekend.

I'm going to have a think of some more

EDIT: OK Simtek's posted up the very things I just mentioned. That's quite weird actually

[Ataxia]

There was the time in Mexico in '86 (or '87, I'd seen different times from different sources) where Nigel Mansell had to go and "drop the kids off at the swimming pool", before realising team-mate Nelson Piquet had removed all of the toilet roll from the garage bathroom.

"this is the same Gerhard Berger who was in a helicopter with Ayrton Senna and asked 'Is this your suitcase?', to which Senna replied 'Yes', to which Gerhard proceeded to throw said suitcase out of the helicopter as a joke"

Senna and Berger were in the helicopter over Monza, and Senna brought along his new carbon-fibre suitcase. Senna was going on about how it was indestructable, so Berger said "let's test that, shall we?" and threw it out. In retaliation to the "passport" fiasco, Senna glued Berger's credit cards together.

Here's a few more examples...the Hakkinen/Herbert one is particularly strange.

[dinizintheoven]

I read a story about Jean Alesi and a certain mischievous Austrian getting into some bother at Fiorano. Ferrari were planning to launch their 1995 car, when Alesi and Berger, wanting to kill some time, decided to go for a drive in a brand new car that they found parked up at the circuit. It was a Lancia Y10.

I had one of those. And then, I had another.

[Leyton House]

Read once about Innes Ireland and another British driver (who's name I forget) were in a bar in Germany. Innes got himself drunk and started ranting "Get that Hitler bloke out here, we'll sort him out!"
The bartender explained that despite the fact most Germans were not fans of Adolf (given this was the 1960s of course) it may be better if they left.
So Innes and the other driver walked out into the town square, stood back to back, then held a pissing duel at 10 paces...

[Frogfoot9013]

Not sure if this counts as it is to do with a test driver, but is Tomas Scheckter's 'curb crawling' considered to be dicking about?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Not sure if this counts as it is to do with a test driver, but is Tomas Scheckter's 'curb crawling' considered to be dicking about?

In more ways than one, yes.

[roblo97]

Time for some of the historic moments at Suzuka.

Williams team parody Dads Army theme featuring Michael Schumacher in 1996
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93LseHRTrQ

Michael Schumacher goes rock and roll style with his brother, Ralf in 2003
http://wtf1.co.uk/i-predict-a-riot-schu ... e-rampage/
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/schum ... at-suzuka/

[Captain Hammer]

It's not Formula 1, or a driver for that matter, but when Volvo joined V8 Supercars last year, team principal Garry Rogers and the race engineers showed up on the grid in Adelaide dressed as ABBA.

[watka]

I recently started reading through Pierre Ménard's brilliant, but often badly edited Encyclopedia of Formula One, and Bernard Cahier's foreword features a whole lot of interesting anecdotes.

One that particularly interested me happened a few nights before the 1958 French Grand Prix, when Mike Hawthorn, Luigi Musso, Maurice Trintignant and Cahier himself winched Harry Schell's Vespa up to the first floor balcony of his hotel room, much to Schell's general dismay.

And it got me thinking. What other instances are there of Formula One drivers generally mucking about and causing mischief everywhere they went? The crazier the better!

Looking up more about Luigi Musso, I was not aware of his rivalry with Hawthorn and Peter Collins, or his debt problems. Enzo Ferrari seemed to actually encourage their rivalry. Tragic that they each died within about a year of each other.