F1 Driver Nicknames, the Professor to Mr. Saturday

Everyone at my club ends up with a nickname in time and it is rare for one to be of their own choosing. They are given by those at the fence on account of your worst afternoon, not your best, and they will see out the car you were in when you put them on. One of our drivers has been going by the same moniker since 2019 over forty seconds he would put out of his mind if he could.

Formula 1 is no different, though that is overlooked when the names are made into marketing. A few have had commercial success from it. Most were put there by a commentator, a rival or the grandstand and some are put up with by drivers who have made public their distaste for them.

The names of the legends

Take Alain Prost, the name and the man are self explanatory. The Professor’s calculation put an end to any fury and netted four titles and fifty-one wins. The nickname has outlived most of the people who watched him race.

The others of his generation got theirs from the press box, the stands or some irresistible rhyme. Mansell was the Lion in the eyes of the tifosi before he was anything to anyone else. As the table above shows, not a single one of them was of the driver’s making.

What the present grid goes by

Sergio Perez of Cadillac has two and they do not go together. Checo is as old as he is and means no more than Sergio. The other was put on him in an afternoon in Abu Dhabi in 2021 for a job done on behalf of another.

Charles Leclerc was made Il Predestinato at fifteen by a Sky Italia commentator after he gave a more surefire answer about his teammates than was called for. Russell put in the work to be Mr. Saturday, dragging a Williams through Q2 nine times in a season and nearly taking pole in the wet at Spa.

Those the drivers do not want

Max Verstappen has told the camera he does not want his. When Alex Albon asked him in 2020 for the most spurious thing said about him, Mad Max was the reply, with the note that it lingers because of the rhyme. His brand of early defending gave rise to the name and something more. The FIA saw fit to ban moving under braking in 2016 and while that was subsumed into a rule on dangerous driving after a season, the paddock still refers to it as the Verstappen rule.

Verstappen made Russell Princess George after a tussle in Azerbaijan. Rivals are not like the press in how they bestow such things and this says as much about the row as the driver.

Then there is Andrea de Cesaris and a career spent being rhymed over for his crashing. Drivers take issue with the implication, not the joke, but objecting never puts an end to it since the verdict was in before they were consulted.

When it is a business

The table above has the crossovers and the pattern is a narrow one. Three things must apply: the driver is on board with it, it is something he would say of himself and it is short enough to be printed.

The Iceman is the complete picture. Coined at McLaren, it went with him to Ferrari, was put on his helmet and site and finally tattooed on his arm. In that way the ownership passed to the one who answers to it.

Daniel Ricciardo’s Honey Badger came from his trainer Stuart Smith and was put on merchandise. Smooth Operator was an accident for Carlos Sainz that became a team radio quip and a product line.

But look at the ones that did not make the transition. No business was built on Hunt the Shunt or Mad Max. A name that is a record of your errors stays with the people who gave it to you, fame or no fame.

What is really being recorded

A list of F1 nicknames is a list of first impressions that have held. The Professor is how Prost defeated his opposition. Mr. Saturday is what Russell can get from a car that will not do much else. Mad Max describes a nineteen-year-old who has since won four titles and would prefer the subject closed.

There are no revisions. Not at my club for the fellow who is still defined by forty seconds in 2019. They come early and they put a moment in stone long after it has run its course.

Questions about F1 nicknames

01

Why was Raikkonen called the Iceman?

For a cool temperament on and off track. Published accounts credit Ron Dennis with giving him the name at McLaren, and Raikkonen kept it when he moved to Ferrari.

02

Who is known as the Professor?

Alain Prost, for a calculating approach to racing that brought four championships and fifty-one wins against faster but less patient rivals.

03

What is Verstappen’s nickname?

Mad Max, from the aggression of his early seasons. He has said publicly that he disagrees with it and that it survives mainly because it rhymes.

04

Why is Russell called Mr. Saturday?

For qualifying performances at Williams that his car had no right to produce, including nine appearances in Q2 in a single season.

05

Why is Perez called Checo?

Because Checo is the common Mexican short form of Sergio. His second nickname, Mexican Minister of Defence, came from one afternoon of defensive driving at Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Jake Holloway is a club racer, track-day instructor, and motorsports editor based near Charlotte, North Carolina. He has raced karts, Legends cars, Spec Miatas, and amateur endurance cars, and he writes for GreenyCars about how racing actually works, from the rule book to the pit lane.