Jokes in Formula 1

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone gets cake in the face from Ferrari's Michael Schumacher as they celebrate Ecclestone's 100th Grand Prix. September 26, 1997. Photo by John Marsh / Empics via Getty Images.

Jokes in Formula 1 were not an exception but a lifestyle. Drivers, mechanics, men, women, richs, poors, old and young. All together in the great game of fun and lightness. The life to slap or to which smiling lightly.

Former F1 team-owner Irish Eddie Jordan, left, jokes with Bernie Ecclestone from Great Britain, right, in the paddock of Monte Carlo, Monaco, on 23 May 2008. Photo by Frank May | usage world.

Bernie Ecclestone jokes with a grid girl during the drivers' parade before the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 26, 2015 in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Lars Baron / Getty Images.

Benetton Ford driver Michael Schumacher, left, shares a joke with Williams Renault driver Nigel Mansell, right, after the Australian Grand Prix at the Adelaide circuit on 13 November 1994. Credit: Mike Hewitt / Allsport.

Michael Schumacher shares a joke with some of his team members during the warm up at Silverstone, ahead of the British Grand Prix on Sunday July 11, 1999. Photo by Owen Humphreys / PA Images via Getty Images.

Erja Hakkinen shares a joke with a McLaren mechanic as she watches husband Mika's times during practice on May 19, 2000. Photo by John Marsh / Empics via Getty Images.

Formula 1 was a circus in which everyone respected and had fun with everyone. They celebrated and smiled as soon as possible.

Nelson Piquet, here in a Brabham BT52-BMW 1983, was certainly not lacking a long tongue and irreverence, not even in front of the press: in 1982 he railed against Ferrari accusing it of building fragile cars (but the Scuderia responded harshly revealing that Nelson had repeatedly asked them in any case to give him a car), in the following years he defined Mansell's wife "racchia" (ugly), the young Senna "fagot" and so on. So much so that the very heavy jokes on the Rai journalist Ezio Zermiani took a back seat as innocent ones.

Nelson Piquet at Monza in 1983.

Nelson Piquet, on the podium of the 1984 Canadian Grand Prix, shows his foot burned due to a fault with the radiator of his Brabham.

Nelson Piquet, Grand Prix of Hungary, Hungaroring, 09 August 1987. Photo by Paul-Henri Cahier / Getty Images.

Nelson Piquet, Benetton, Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve, 1991 Canadian Grand Prix.

Nelson Piquet (BRA) shares a joke with Mike Doodson (GBR) and the journalist Giuseppe (Pino) Allievi (ITA). Formula One World Championship, Rd 4, Spanish Grand Prix, Practice Day, Barcelona, Spain, Friday 25 April 2008. Photo by Motorsport Images.

Nelson Piquet, sitting in front of his Williams FW11, reading a “book” to his sons.

Nelson Piquet’s, left, daughter Kelly, on right, is dating current world champion Max Verstappen, middle.

Gerhard Berger, Ferrari.

Left to right: second place finisher, Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger, winner, Nigel Mansell and Martin Brundle, the third place finisher, share a joke on the podium after the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide on 13 November 1994. Credit: Mike Hewitt / Allsport.

05 September 1997, Gerhard Berger jokes with an Italian policewoman. Photo by Getty Images.

Former F1 driver Gerhard Berger poses as he arrives to attend the 31th International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo on January 18, 2007 in Monaco. Photo by Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images.

And then the jokes were also auteur ones with protagonists such as Nelson Piquet, Gerhard Berger, Jean Alesi, Ayrton Senna and many others. At the end of each race, after 10 minutes they were all friends.

Berger and Alesi's interview in 1995 with sports journalist Claudia Peroni is famous but not exactly compliant with today's political correctness ... You can see what happened in this video https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1525988637450430

Berger and Alesi were not easy to be interviewed by a pretty female journalist …. and Claudia Peroni was not an exception.

Claudia Peroni, a good journalist and a pretty woman.

Claudia Peroni interviews the third classified Gerhard Berger at San Marino in 1996. Drivers and journalists were most of the times friends.

Sometimes excessive jokes towards the women who reacted, however, with an irony and a goliardia that made them even more beautiful. Jokes that were made, anyway, in an educated way and without malice.

Nelson Piquet, Brabham, interviewed by Ezio Zermiani.

Nelson Piquet, aged 28, interviewed by Ezio Zermiani in Brazil.

Nelson Piquet, Williams, interviewed by Ezio Zermiani at the 1986 Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

Nelson Piquet, Lotus, interviewed by Ezio Zermiani.

How many memories and laughs in seeing Piquet make fun of the Rai commentator Ezio Zermiani!

Ayrton Senna, McLaren, interviewed by Ezio Zermiani.

And he himself, Ezio Zermiani, the "journalist sent to the pits" who helped to make all the fans sitting in front of the television in the eighties and nineties live up close the pre, during and after race emotions, talks about that old, goliardic Formula 1 of his career beginnings with the heart of a lover, now distant from those moments: "we have to go back in time, to the early 1980s, to the beginning of a magical two-year period of Formula 1, to immerse ourselves in a fantastic world, marked by a golden age that is difficult to repeat. For a very happy set of coincidences, a series of men, designers, team managers and drivers with genius, daring and amazing personalities met up: first of all the great Enzo Ferrari, creator of a myth, Mauro Forghieri, Gordon Murray, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, Niki Lauda, Clay Regazzoni, Alain Prost, Elio de Angelis, Renè Arnoux, Michele Alboreto, Alessandro Nannini, Nelson Piquet, Riccardo Patrese, Jean Alesi, Michael Schumacher and many others. At the beginning of this wonderful adventure, it must be said that the television companies were not many and even the journalists were reduced to a small group of about twenty people. This is very different from today, where there are hundreds of insiders with the obvious lack of time on the part of the interviewee on duty to dedicate even a minimum space to each of them. As a result, a forest of microphones materialize to formulate the same questions and receive the same answers for everyone, under the strict control of the press officers, ready to trim down uncomfortable questions and inappropriate answers. Unthinkable today, as I used to do, to be able to interview on the starting grid, a few seconds from the start, in the most exciting and dangerous phase of the event, drivers intent on fast starting and subjected to a maximum concentration. Back then the rules were less stringent, the real masters of the Circus were the drivers who could personally manage their relations with the media. They and not others decided what to do and what to say. Then, slowly, the avalanche of money has imprisoned them in rituals that, instead of sticking to the race, have more to do with the strategies of the boards of directors and the trends of the stock exchanges, liable to suffer collapses even for the smallest, but inappropriate, personal consideration. They bought the soul of the drivers, the much vaunted risk knights. Today everything travels on well-fixed tracks on and off the track, with little chance of igniting emotions or to build legends. Today, satellites allow you to go on the air or broadcast recordings from anywhere in the world where the event takes place. In the middle of the desert you open a briefcase and connect yourself with the universe. Everything easier from a logistical point of view. But, from a human and emotional point of view, can the same be said? I don’t know. I don’t believe." Ezio Zermiani from the pits, from those pits, is unable to give a serene judgment. He doesn’t find himself anymore.

F1 Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, left, flanked by Italian journalist Ezio Zermiani, pays tribute to Ayrton Senna during a ceremony to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death, on May 01, 2014 in Imola. On the background Gerhard Berger.

And about the accident involving Senna, Zermiani tells us: "his Williams, after impacting flat against the Tamburello wall with the two right tires leaving two funereal black stripes imprinted as the signature of death, bounces off and stops on the lawn. At the moment, I breathe a sigh of relief: the car is not overturned, the damages are understood to be minimal, Ayrton raises his head and lowers it. I reassure myself because I was aware of a little secret: there was an agreement with his parents according to which, after a possible accident, Ayrton would raise and lower his head three times to signal that everything was fine. After the first lowering, I see Ayrton's helmet standing still and I sense the tragedy. I immediately run to the car and, after a look in the cockpit, I understand that there is nothing more to do. A small pool of blood mixed with brain matter is congealing on the suit at the height of the legs. It will later be told that Senna, transported by helicopter, died at the hospital in Bologna: this is not true. If it was officially established that the death had occurred on the track, the race would have been stopped and Ecclestone would never have agreed to stop the race with consequent economic loss. “The show must go on.”” (However, the law in force in Italy at the time provided for a person to be declared dead at the time of cardiac death. In Ayrton there was no more brain activity but, upon arrival at the hospital, his heart had not yet stopped beating).

Gerhard Berger and Ayrton Senna laughing happily.

Remembering those jokes today means returning to school, returning to having your mind free without thoughts, reliving a very distant dream. Nowadays, in the era of professionalism and exasperated individualism, moments of the genre would be seen as inconvenients and, above all, simply considered stupid, practically useless jokes.

Ayrton Senna, driver of the McLaren-Honda MP4/5B, shares a funny joke with team mate Gerhard Berger (in car) during pre-season testing on 1st February 1990 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, San Marino. Photo by Pascal Rondeau / Getty Images.

But that Formula 1 had, compared to the one of our times, an irreplaceable ingredient: the smile.

Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger, Grand Prix of Portugal, Estoril, 22 September 1991. Photo by Paul-Henri Cahier / Getty Images.

By Brembo s.p.a. on October 29, 2021. Fantasy, intuition, glance and speed of execution. Formula 1 drivers employ these qualities on the track to try to gain a tenth of a second in every curve and out of the track to make fun of colleagues.

Taken off the helmet, some prefer to relax, closing themselves in motorhomes, alone or with family members. Others, on the other hand, are looking forward to having fun and, often, do it by making jokes against teammates or other team members. We have chosen some of the most successful inside and off the track.

Berger and Senna: a jumps problem

Gerhard Berger is the driver that Ayrton Senna had the longest as a companion: together they raced three seasons with McLaren, from 1990 to 1992, for a total of 48 Grands Prix.

Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger at Silverstone on July 12, 1991. Photo by Getty Images.

Their harmony was also evident to the superficial observer and the anecdotes they left us are many. Once, during a helicopter flight not far from the Monza circuit, the Austrian threw out the carbon fiber briefcase of the Brazilian, who had boasted of its indestructibility. A trip to Australia was also memorable, in which Berger filled Ayton’s hotel room with a dozen frogs.

Perez from his engineers: "when you come back we deal with it"

In 2011 Sergio Perez made his Formula 1 debut with the Ferrari-powered Sauber. In the first 14 Grands Prix he scored points only on 3 occasions. In Japan, the 17th place in qualifying immediately put a strain on his Sunday. Yet, thanks to the two stops and the careful use of the tires, the Mexican managed to climb back to eighth place on lap 42. On the last lap, however, he started shouting on the radio: "I have no power, I have no power", disconcerting everyone. Crossing the finish line in 8th place he burst out laughing: "ha, ha, ha, I was kidding."

Lauda to a female journalist: "don't look at me I can't hear"

Despite the pains he suffered in the accident on the old Nurburgring, the late Niki Lauda was a man of spirit. On the occasion of the release of the film Rush, he returned to the scene of the accident, at the Bergwerk bend, with an American television crew. When the reporter asked him what he felt, he started talking, then looked into the grass and picked up something: "look what's here? My ear." The cameraman and the woman were thrilled. In fact, he was holding a cookie that he had hidden just before.

Piquet and Mansell: the best on paper

Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell were teammates in 1986 and 1987 with the Williams Honda, which was the best car of the lot at the time. The third to last race of their coexistence was the Mexican GP. In the test sessions the Brazilian noticed that the British stopped too often, being a victim of intestinal problems. At one point he made the toilet paper disappear from all the bathrooms, but the colleague discovered it only once he was seated. He appears to have reacted with the roar of a lion, his nickname.

Jean Alesi, Jean Todt and Gerhard Berger.

Jean Todt, Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi.

Alesi and Berger to Todt: a U-turn or rather a Y-turn

After Senna Berger became the partner of Jean Alesi, from 1993 to 1995, at Ferrari. The Frenchman said that one day they were in Maranello and the Austrian asked him for a ride to Fiorano. Alesi, however, did not have a car and so they borrowed the Lancia Y10 of Jean Todt, at the time Director of the Scuderia Ferrari. To challenge, Jean Alesi drove at full speed but Berger responded by pulling the handbrake. Everything went well up to the entrance to the track when they rolled over. In a moment the mechanics brought the car back to its four wheels and covered it with a sheet. In the end the two Ferrari drivers got away with an earful by Todt, certainly not due to the value of his Lancia.

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