Did I misspell "Heikki" in a post, somewhere? The Speed TV commentators are showing their age, referring to Kazuki Nakajima as "The Great Kazoo". Are we forgetting "Dr. Chop"?
I think Hobbs may be the source for 1/2 the nicknames out there....probably not, but a few of his seem to stick
He just won his class at Le Mans. He's a good driver but a bit rough around the edges and maybe got too early into a top F1 team (the fact that he landed that Benetton drive was based on pure talent, not financial backing). Maybe he would have fit in more in the eighties than the nineties. He did some amazing things with back marker cars but was also prone to mistakes.
What makes a nickname "official"? Anyway, "The Tiny Warrior" was frequently used in reference to Ukyo Katayama (and still is, I suppose).
Thanks. I wasn't trying to pick on the Dutch, but never really understood the fascination with Jos. As a Swiss I was of course always cheering for Marc Surer, but I knew full well that he was hopeless. Back to nicknames: Johnny Carwash
Yup, Lavaggia. Good point. And how about Mika Hakkinen who was called "The flying Fin", which used to be a nick name for a Fin runner in Summer Olympics decades ago.
last year I heard one of the commentators refer to Coultard as "Uncle Coultard". LOL They said he was the oldest one driving and that he doesn't like the name so much.
David Hobbs refers to DC as "Old man Coulthard". I burst out laughing when David was running to the podium in Canada, and Hobbs said "What's that old codger running like that for? He's gonna have a heart attack".
I think Giovanni Lavaggi's family name means "washing" or something similar in Italian. One more: "Frenchy" -- Jean Girard
The Kaiser,Rain Master, Red Baron = Michael Schumacher Matador = F Alonso Jos the Boss El Gordito, Juannabe, Juancho or The Monster = JP Montoya Fangio - El Chueco Alberto Ascari - Ciccio Pierluigi Martini - Puffo Froilan Gonzalez - The Pampas Bull Stirling Moss = the Boy Andrea de Cesaris = de Crasheris Antonio Pizzonia = Jungle Boy Ralf Schumacher - Half Schumacher Note:The first Flying Finn was Leo Kinnunen, last GP racer to wear an open face helmet.
Actually the first flying fin was a long distance runner (as I mentioned earlier in my post): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Finn_(athlete)
He was never a F1 driver (I don't think he would have fitted in a single-seater with his girth!!), but former rally champion Erik Carlson's nickame always made me smile: POTAKET. In Swedish, POTAKET apparently means "on the roof", a nickname Carlson inherited for inverting his rally SAAB regularly in his early years.
Oops - "The Rat" has already been posted. One more: "Little leaf" (Generally abbreviated to "L'il leaf") - Stefan Johanssen. I don't know where it came from, but assume it was down to his tiny size - "A gust of wind and he'd blow away like a little leaf".......
