https://www.planetf1.com/news/netflix-film-f1-driver/
Hmm. Wasn’t there an Indy 500 winner who was a criminal and thug? Always that might make a great bio-pic, kind of a Raging Bull on spokes.
Probably close to half the teams had one member with those "credentials" in NASCAR mid 1960s................
Plot sounds desperately stupid. They really need an F1 driver to do getaway driving? The world is full of pro-am racing drivers who, all things considered, aren't *that* far off the pace of f1 drivers. Stupid plot and De Niro is way past his prime. Hard pass.
F1 driver beholden to organized crime? Finally it looks like someone decided to do a proper 21st century update of the great F1 film Speed Driver
@buddyg banned for 7 days for P&R in to he F1 Forum. Ban length doubled to 2 weeks for attempted reregistration to circumvent the ban. Edit: ban lifted after amicable e-mail correspondence. All the best, Andrew.
I think it sounds like a really bad idea which will make Stallone's Indycar film look like a masterpiece in comparison. If I were Lewis I would sue because it is practically implying it is portraying him by default as the only black F1 driver... 1-without permission and agreement. 2-Implying he is a criminal...that is not the kind of image he wants to build. I like de Niro and have huge respect for his acting but this....nooo.
Here he is. Drove the first Offy powered winner at the 500. Quite the sweetie. Was at large for a year and a half. Makes the worst of the NASCAR brigade wear Pointe shoes. https://www.onedirt.com/news/todays-history-notorious-racer-kelly-petillo-wins-mines-field-race/
The worst of the worst criminal in F1 was a German who was supposedly going to sponsor the Larrousse F1 team but was a drug dealer, murderer etc etc and died in a shootout with police...Not even the Whittington brothers, Lanier, Paul senior can match that in terms of dramatic ending...There was a great article a few years ago listing all the conmen, quite a read, can't find it now.
No, quite different. Didier Calmels was the business partner of Larousse. An honourable business man...but his wife cheated on him and he shot her. Eventually after a six year sentence he got acquitted: crime passionnel. French law has a provision for that. But the German was a whole other kettle of fish, a die hard criminal.
Is there a 'greatest F1 crooks of all time thread' ? If not, I'd be delighted to start one (with due care regarding libel laws, of course).... Ah, never mind, found this: https://f1i.com/magazine/38967-swindlers-liars-and-fraudsters-f1s-most-curious-characters.html While in full agreement with this list, I feel they missed quite a few other villains, including the biggest one of all – although he is mentioned in relation to one of the charlatans named in the article.
Here you go, from Joe Saward's archives: One of the least known yet most remarkable stories of the era was that of Gerard Larrousse's partner Rainer Walldorf who was briefly involved in F1 in 1992. The 50-year-old German was actually called Klaus Walz and was wanted by the police in several countries in connection with four different – and rather nasty – murders. F1 only discovered this when news came from France that Walldorf's house had been raided early one morning by a posse of French police. He had taken his arrest calmly and asked if he might collect something important from the desk in his study. He rummaged around until he found the hand grenade he was looking for and then gave the assembled policemen a choice: they could all blow up together there and then, or he could take the police chief hostage and handcuff everyone else to the available furniture. The policemen had a vote and were manacled to the fixtures and fittings while Walz and the police chief went off in a car into the country. On the way he telephoned an accomplice and they met in the hills, leaving the police chief handcuffed to the steering wheel of his car, and throwing the hand grenade into a nearby chicken coop. A month later Walz was tracked down to a hotel in Germany where, after being surrounded for nine hours by German police, he was killed in a gun battle...
Oh goody, another Prince Walkinshaw Ibrahim van Moneytron thread erupting, sponsored by Rich Energy....
That is the article I was referring to, thanks. Yes Walz is the one that takes the cake. Gerard Larrousse is actually my remote uncle in law but I only see him at Retromobile and Le Mans Classic. he has an incredibly good memory, I interviewed him once. He is a man of very very few words and I fear if I ever asked about Walz there would be no more words at all! Isobel you are absolutely right there have been threads like that before but in early February any significant F1 news is a bit hard to come by....