The Formula 1 edit

Whether you’re new to the sport or have been a fan for years, the world of Formula 1 is entertaining and extensive. One of the biggest and most important aspects of the sport is the pop culture side of it, the internet side of it. A F1 realm that I live in! There are many different nicknames, quotes, and race moments that a lot of F1 fans consider basic knowledge, but in case you’re just now getting around to it, here’s everything you need to know.

nicknames

Starting off strong, we have nicknames. Many fans refer to their favorite drivers by their nicknames, some drivers even refer to themselves using these self-proclaimed names as well. Here are the most important ones in the community right now.

Smooth Operator-Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz and his fans often refer to him as the Smooth Operator, a reference to the popular 80’s song by Sade. He can often be heard singing the song on his radio com after a good race!

The Rookie-Fernando Alonso

This is the most ironic nickname of the batch. Considering that Fernando Alonso is the oldest driver on the grid, he is the farthest thing from a rookie. He coined the nickname after retiring from F1 in 2018 only to rejoin in 2021. Fans also gave him this nickname because he is probably the most hip driver in Formula 1. Two examples of Alonso channeling rookie energy would be when he shared a video to social media of him shushing the camera and then tracing his jawline with his finger, for the younger generation you will know this as mewing. The second example would be him posting another video online of “Hitting the Griddy” in the Aston Martin paddock. Taking part in social media trends makes him more of a rookie than the actual rookies, hence the nickname “The Rookie” !

Pastry-Oscar Piastri

In Oscar Piastri’s rookie year, he debuted his helmet to social media, only for the fans to shoot back that a pastry should have been included on the headgear. Since Oscar’s last name sounds so much like the food item, fans felt he should have used the play-on-words to make a silly helmet, but Oscar played it safe. So was the start of Oscar Piastri’s alter ego, Oscar Pastry.

The Honey Badger-Daniel Ricciardo

RIP to the Australian driver’s racing career, but never to his carnivorous nickname! Ricciardo chose the nickname for himself way back in 2014 when he began his racing career. He said he believed he shared some characteristics with the mammal, which is why he chose the name!

Estie Bestie-Esteban Ocon

In a Grill the Grid game show with Formula 1’s YouTube channel, Haas driver Esteban Ocon was asked what his nickname is, he responded with Estie Bestie, which is very fitting because he seems like he would be a great best friend!

quotes

What may sound like absolute nonsense to you holds different meanings to the F1 fans who are online! My vocabulary is mainly comprised of Formula 1 quotes. After you read some of them, you’ll see why!

“Oh my God, I’ve never looked so good.” This iconic line was delivered by none other than Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. On a live stream, the Monegasque driver decided to put on a banana costume. Once it was on, he commented on how amazing he looked, coining the timeless catchphrase.

“Ki Ki Raa” “Ki Ki Aay” Now this one is a bunch of gibberish, but there’s a lot more to it than what meets the eye! Daniel Ricciardo was the king of this quote, saying it all the time. One day an interviewer asked him what it meant, and he said that there is an Australian rapper who says stuff like this in between his lines. It is absolute nonsense, but the driver thought it was hilarious and adopted the saying for himself. His most iconic quote using it was in 2019 after a particularly sweaty grand prix. when commentators asked the then Renault driver if his sweat was real, he responded with “It’s real sweat, I’m a high-performance athlete, athletes sweat. Sweat baby. Ki Ki Ki Raa. Sweat sweat, ooh ooh.” Essentially leaving the reporters wheezing for air. How he said this so casually, no one knows, but only Danny Ric could pull off a saying like this and make it work!

“I am Stupid” Yet another quote by Charles Leclerc, this one came from a crash in qualifying for the 2019 Azerbaijan grand prix. Leclerc’s left front tire locked up in a turn, resulting in a crash into the wall.

“It’s near a fish!” This quote comes from McLaren driver Lando Norris. Lando has shown his aversion to fish and seafood many times in past interviews, but this particular time rose to popularity. The McLaren YouTube channel posted a video five years ago in Japan in which the two drivers, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, tried Japanese food. Since Japan is known for its aquatic cuisine, naturally, seafood was on the menu. After asking the servers if there was fish in various different food items, one of which being a spring roll, Lando encountered sushi. Knowing his teammates disgust for the food item, Carlos taunted him, obviously. One of the most popular quotes from Carlos in this particular video was him singing, “Lando! It’s sushi time!” In which Lando replied by telling the server he wanted it nowhere near him. Carlos attempted to mollify Lando’s worries by showing him that one particular sushi roll didn’t have fish in it. Lando basically screamed back at Carlos, “It’s near a fish!” Which grew in popularity immensely and is now used by fans to blackmail Lando every chance they get!

“DU DU DU DU Max Verstappen.” The tagline of the popular song by Carte Blanq and Maxx Power, 33 Max Verstappen, quickly became Max’s theme song. Fans of the 4-time world champion can be heard singing this song when Max stands on the top step of the podium. Some fans even go so far as to refer to Max as “DU DU DU DU” in hopes that fellow fans will get the reference and finish the catchphrase. This song is a certified banger and definitely in my favorites playlist on Spotify!

f1 moments

This article can’t be complete without some drama that circulates the track!

George Russell and Max Verstappen beef

Nearing the end of the 2024 season, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell claimed that Red Bull driver Max Verstappen threatened him before the Qatar grand prix saying, “I’ll put you on your f***ing head into the wall.” He also said that Verstappen had been bullying drivers for years. Prior to Russell’s comment, Verstappen told reporters that he had lost all respect for George. After a particularly messy qualifying round in Qatar, Max didn’t seem too happy with the Brit. Verstappen took pole position but was given a one-place grid penalty for driving too slow on a cool down lap. Once this penalty was issued, Max and George started driving a little too close together through turn twelve, resulting in Russell being pushed into the gravel. Max ended up winning that race, but he still decided to throw George under the bus in his post-race press conference. “I’ve never seen someone try to s**w someone over that hard” is what the Dutch driver told reporters. The following Thursday was Media Day in Abu Dhabi, in which Russell issued his response. “I find it all quite ironic, seeing as Saturday night he said he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my f***ing head in the wall.” “So to question somebody’s integrity as a person while saying comments like that a day before, I find, is very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.” So started the George vs. Max feud.

The two basically refused to talk to one another, resulting in a few other drivers commenting on it. At the end of the 2024 racing year, the drivers all had dinner together. Lando Norris posted a couple photos of this dinner and in his caption he put, “2024 dinner! And yes, the two you’re thinking about were sat as far away from each other as possible.” Max commented on this post with a meat emoji, possibly meaning ‘beef’!

No further developments happened on this troublesome pair until the 2025 Spanish grand prix. With only a few more laps to go, Max started having trouble with his tires. After pitting too many times, the Red Bull pit crew had no other choice but to give him hard tires. These tires weren’t ideal for the Barcelona circuit so naturally, he had some issues with them. These issues resulted in him briefly losing control over the car before being hit by Charles Leclerc and George Russell back-to-back. Max went off the track and regained his original position from before the collisions took place. Max’s race engineers went on to tell him that he had to give the place to George. He objected but eventually gave in. As George moved to overtake Max and claim his rightful position, Max swerved and crashed into him! The FIA ruled this collision as deliberate and gave Max a ten-second time penalty. Max finished the race from 10th place.

The Canadian Grand Prix followed the Spanish one. George ended up on pole in qualifying and Max scored second. The two played safe during the race, probably because Max had 11 penalty points and one more would get him banned from the next race. George won and Max got second. George’s young teammate Kimi Antonelli landed third place, so George and Max looked like two divorced parents trying to put their differences aside and support their child, that child being Kimi. Nothing happened at this race, luckily, but fans are definitely curious if the two drivers have resolved their issues yet or if they’re still arguing!

Ferrari Strategies

The Ferrari F1 team is well known for many things, one of which being their ability to always poorly plan their strategies. The Ferrari strategists will plan on one strategy and will go straight into another one in the middle of a race. At one particular grand prix, a Ferrari race engineer told Charles Leclerc to come into the pit lane for a fresh set of tires, Charles obliged. Just as Charles drove off the track and into the pit lane, they told him never-mind and to just keep driving, which cost him a few places. Charles never seems very happy with the strategies and can often be found arguing with his race engineer over his intercom. People make fun of the strategies all the time. One particular instance of a video you might see on the internet may have a caption like “Our relationship was shorter than a Ferrari strategy.” Which tells us that their relationship probably lasted 0.02 seconds!

The Curse of the Second Red Bull Seat

The second Red Bull seat next to Max Verstappen seems to be cursed. Since Max joined Red Bull in 2015, he has gone through 6 teammates. The Red Bull car is proven to cater to Max’s aggressive driving, but not all drivers are like Max Verstappen. So, when a driver gets selected for the second seat, they are bound to fail with the harsh technology. Red Bull’s team principal, Christain Horner, also has a nasty habit of firing drivers before they have a chance to prove themselves. One example of this would be Liam Lawson, who joined Red Bull for the 2025 season, which was his first season driving a car full-time. Liam didn’t do very well the first few races, which makes sense. Imagine not driving an F1 car and then being thrown into a Red Bull, it’s bound to take some time to get used to it, but Horner didn’t think so. Liam participated in two F1 races this year before being demoted to the junior team, Racing Bulls. I don’t know about you, but if I was thrown into a Red Bull F1 car with little to no experience in a race, I would probably need more than TWO races to prove myself! Hence rumors of the Curse. It’s a running joke on social media that the fans need to protect Isack Hadjar, a rookie driver for Racing Bulls. Horner announced that he wanted to look into promoting Hadjar to the senior team, but fans freaked out. With rumors of the curse circulating in every part of F1 media, we all want to protect Hadjar from Red Bull. Luckily, Isack Hadjar is with us. When asked about the possible promotion, he told reporters that he isn’t ready for that yet. Which gives us hope for the French rookie’s future.

Well, I hope that this was educational for you, because it sure was fun to write for me! With constant developments happening in F1 media, another one of the articles is sure to pop up in the future!