Everyone Has Something
Like any other pro sport, the people playing the field have to think about the conditions of their area, how their body feels before the race, and how their instruments, if any, feel good. Racing works the same way. And, like in any other pro sport, race car drivers have a set of personal routines, or clothes, or charms, that they believe will help them perform their best. Superstition is a common thread across experts in any field, and these 20 drivers went all in.
1. Alberto Ascari’s Pale-Blue Helmet
Alberto Ascari’s pale-blue racing helmet became an important part of his pre-race routine. He avoided black cats and numbers he believed were unlucky, and he wouldn’t let anyone else touch the case that held his helmet.
2. Stefano Modena’s Garage Rule
Stefano Modena was very particular about where his car should sit in the garage. During a move into a new garage in 1989, his car was placed on the left side, and Modena refused to get into it. His crew eventually had to rearrange the cars and equipment so his car could be positioned on the right instead.
Martin Lee from London, UK on Wikimedia
3. Sergio Pérez’s Photograph
Sergio Pérez carried a photograph of Pope John Paul II inside his cockpit after meeting him and feeling a strong personal connection. Pérez said having the image nearby made him feel supported and gave him extra strength during a race.
4. Alan Jones’s Red Underpants
Alan Jones’s lucky charm was a pair of red underpants. He lost track of them right before the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix, believing them to have been left behind. His wife managed to retrieve them and get them to Montreal in time for the race. Jones wore them, raced, and won.
5. David Coulthard’s Traveling Pants
David Coulthard also had lucky underwear, although his pair had been given to him by his aunt. By the time he reached Formula One, the underwear had become too worn out to actually wear, but he still kept them around as a sort of charm. Eventually, a staff member came across it during a cleanup and threw it away without realizing what it meant to him.
6. Felipe Massa’s Winning Pair
Felipe Massa had a simple rule for his underwear during a race weekend. If things were going well, he liked to keep wearing the same pair. If the day went badly, he’d change his pair.
7. Sebastian Vettel’s Collection
Sebastian Vettel carried several small items while racing, including a metal pig and a one-cent coin inside his race suit. He also tucked two pieces of lucky silver beneath his boot laces. One of these pieces was a St. Christopher medal given to him by his grandmother.
8. Michael Schumacher’s Odd Numbers
Michael Schumacher preferred racing with odd numbers, and his career gave him plenty of reasons to feel attached to them. When he had a chance to switch from No. 4 to No. 3, he asked for the change. Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, all of Schumacher’s world championships had come in cars carrying odd numbers.
9. Michael Schumacher’s Amulet
Numbers weren’t Schumacher’s only superstition. He also kept a ceramic amulet marked with the initials of his family members. Before a race in Bahrain in 2004, the charm had been left at his hotel, so a team member went back to retrieve it. Schumacher later joked that it might have made the decisive difference.
10. Lance Stroll’s Boots
Lance Stroll likes to keep the same pair of racing boots for an entire season whenever he can. Aside from the practicality of comfortable shoes, any good results he obtained by wearing the boots made him more reluctant to replace them.
11. Carlos Sainz’s Lucky Cap
Carlos Sainz had a favorite cap that followed him through his junior racing years and into the early part of his Formula One career. The cap was accidentally thrown into the crowd during a 2015 drivers' parade, which made Sainz understandably upset. Luckily, the cap was returned to him several days later.
Flavien Duhamel / Peugeot Sport on Wikimedia
12. Mark Webber’s Familiar Entrance
Mark Webber always got into his car from the same side. It’s a tiny habit compared with carrying medals or rearranging an entire garage, but repetition is a powerful thing. He simply preferred to begin every drive in a way that felt right to him.
13. Nico Hülkenberg’s Left-Side Rule
Nico Hülkenberg has a similar habit, although his rule is more specific. He always enters the car from the left side. The movement only takes a few seconds, yet it’s another example of how easily small routines can become fixed in a driver’s mind.
14. Tazio Nuvolari’s Pin
Tazio Nuvolari carried, somewhat ironically, a tortoise pin as his lucky charm. The little pin stayed with him during competition and became closely linked with his racing career. While slow and steady can win certain races, it probably wouldn’t be a good rule to follow for this particular sport.
neznámý (unknown) on Wikimedia
15. Alex Wurz’s Mismatched Boots
Alex Wurz became known for wearing racing boots in different colors, a habit that went back to his early days in motorsport. As he moved through the sport, the mismatched boots became part of both his routine and his public image.
16. John Force’s Medal
John Force wouldn’t climb into his drag-racing car without at least one St. Christopher medal around his neck, and sometimes he wore two. The symbol was important enough that it also appeared on his car. St. Christopher is traditionally connected with travelers and safe journeys, so it’s easy to see why the medal might appeal to someone whose job involves launching down a drag strip at enormous speed.
17. Tommy Ivo’s Ankh
Tommy “T.V. Tommy” Ivo wore an Egyptian ankh, also known as the key of life, as a good-luck charm during his racing career. After a major crash in 1974, he remembered that he’d forgotten to wear it that day.
18. Joe Amato’s Snoopy Underwear
Joe Amato’s lucky clothing had a little more personality than most. He wore underwear featuring Snoopy, turning a familiar cartoon character into a crucial part of his race-day routine.
Capisce (Joe Amato) on Wikimedia
19. Sterling Marlin’s Daytona Routine
Sterling Marlin had good reason to become protective of his Daytona routine after winning the Daytona 500 in back-to-back years. He didn’t want to change anything that had been part of those successful weekends. He stayed in the same hotel room, wore the same T-shirt under his racing suit, and ate a bologna sandwich with a soft drink before the race.
20. Dale Earnhardt’s Penny
A lucky penny rode along with Dale Earnhardt during his famous victory at the 1998 Daytona 500. The coin had been glued to the dashboard of his black No. 3 Chevrolet, so it was present when Earnhardt finally won the race.
