Zak Brown revealed that a challenge from Toto Wolff pushed him to get a tattoo, while Daniel Ricciardo has a time set for Cyril Abiteboul’s tattoo.
In current times, a lot of the people have got tattoos, whether we talk about actors or celebrities or go down the line of sportspersons. Our very own F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is a big fan of tattoos and has got them all over his body.
In the past, they were viewed with suspicion but not so nowadays and the latest to go under the needle in F1 was Brown of McLaren. The challenge had been laid down to him by Toto Wolff and came about resulting from the Industry Leaders Challenge which was commenced by the Grand Prix Trust by Sky Sports F1, the charity which helps people who were part of Formula One, but have been hit by troubled times.
Famously known for a hatred of needles was the focal reason that Wolff nominated Brown. With the US Grand Prix this weekend, he was seen visiting a tattooist and was “inked” with a tattoo in tribute to Ricciardo’s Italian GP win last month – which was also the American’s first win as a team boss. He got the Monza circuit tattooed on his left arm.
“Sometimes you have to face your greatest fears, which I’ve done,” said Brown when speaking to media including FormulaRapida.net. “It actually came about through the Grand Prix Trust with Sky, where a team boss gets nominated each year to do something that terrifies them. Toto nominated me last year, and needles sufficiently terrify me.
“So in trying to think through what would be kind of fun and genuine, and properly terrifying, I came up with the idea of getting a tattoo. Then obviously, given that Daniel himself is a fan of tattoos, and with him winning recently, I thought maybe we can tie the two together and have him come to visit and hold my hand,” summed up Brown.
The nature of the Grand Prix Trust challenge means that Brown can now nominate another high-profile individual from F1 to do something themselves next year. The rules and nature of the challenge mean that Brown can now nominate a high profile person from F1. When speaking to media, he did not reveal but on Sky, he said it to be Stefano Domenicali.
“I know who it is, I’ve done it,” said Brown. “It’s to nominate someone significant, a personality in the sport. So far it’s been three team bosses in a row, but it’s not limited to just that. It could be engineers, it could be drivers, it can be other people with significant personalities if you’d like within the sport. It’s up to the individual to come up with their own plan, and I think it will be rolled out shortly who I’ve nominated. I’m not allowed to say. It’s embargoed.”
Interestingly, the reveal of Brown tattoo came on the same day that he handed Ricciardo his winning bet for the Australian getting a McLaren podium this year. Having elected to steer clear on a tattoo on that one, the American agreed to give the Australian a run in a former Dale Earnhardt Sr. NASCAR, which happened on Saturday morning in Austin.
Speaking about the tattoo, Ricciardo was surprised when Brown took him to the parlour. The Australian had no idea, but it was cool. While on the subject, he revealed that the Abiteboul tattoo is set to happen between Qatar and Saudi Arabia races, if all goes well. Now, though, he jokes to see if Christian Horner and Helmut Marko would do it or not.
“I had a little doubt,” started Ricciardo when speaking to media including FormulaRapida.net. “Actually, I had no idea that Zak is going to get a tattoo, when we popped up there and I was like ‘why are we here?’ It was cool. As for Cyril, he is provisionally locked in, we booked him in…its between Qatar and Saudi Arabia races, and unless something changes with schedule, it is going to happen.
“We have been in touch recently and he is very keen and I think after Zak getting it, he is going to be even more keen to make it happen. It is happening mate! Its happening! I’ll give him another nudge but trust me, he’s actually pretty keen for it. [And now] I need to revisit Christian and Helmut and see if they are interested as well to go through it. What do you think of Helmet with a face tattoo, do you think he can pull it off?,” summed up Ricciardo with a huge laughter.
The story was co-written by Neil Farrell
Here’s last from Daniel Ricciardo on Cyril Abiteboul tattoo