Earlier this season, new race director Niels Wittich announced that F1’s governing body, the FIA, would start being more strict with what the drivers were wearing in their cars.
According to Williams Racing driver Nicholas Latifi, this brought to a permanent end his only superstition.
“I used to always drive in the same pair of boxer shorts,” Latifi said before the United States Grand Prix when asked if he had any superstitions. “But we’re not allowed to do that anymore … So now I have to always wear the same fireproof underwear.”
Latifi’s lucky underwear wasn’t just any underwear, either. Before the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix, Latifi spoke about the red boxers and their meaning.
“[My aunt] has a thing where every year for Christmas, one of the presents she gets for all her nephews is some red boxers,” Latifi said. “Always the Calvin Klein boxers, and we are all supposed to wear them on New Year’s for good luck. So I have a large accumulation of red boxers over the years, and I used to always wear one of them on race day.”
Latifi said in 2021 that he was no longer wearing them for every race, noting that “some races I was getting bad results … this probably isn’t helping.” However, his new comments suggest they were once again a part of his regular race-day wardrobe this season before the FIA started getting strict.
As for other drivers, some might opt not to wear any underwear at all now. This was a point made by Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri in an interview with Sky Sports (via ESPN) after the drivers met with the FIA about the enforcement.
“It was quite a long discussion,” said Piastri, who will drive for McLaren next year. “A few people have changed some of their underwear protocols. It’s a contentious topic because you’re going commando if you’re not wearing your own.”
Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel even had fun protesting the rule by wearing underwear outside of his firesuit before the Miami Grand Prix.
At the time, AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly challenged the FIA to check his underwear before races.
It is unclear if the FIA accepted the challenge.
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