‘No Bernie Ecclestone jokes’ and a Russell voice note: Jack Whitehall’s ‘heavily policed’ F1 script

Through the F1 75 launch event at London’s O2 back in February, Formula 1 celebrated its 75th anniversary season as it neared commencement.

Host for the evening was British actor and comedian Jack Whitehall, who has opened up on the extreme scrutiny which his script underwent. All jokes regarding Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore were banned, while one joke that did make the cut required a voice note to George Russell for his approval, which was granted, as the drivers “have a sense of humour”.

Jack Whitehall opens up on ‘heavily policed’ F1 75 script

For the first time in Formula 1 history, all teams and drivers descended on the O2 on 18 February, as the car liveries were revealed and the stage was set for an upcoming season of great significance.

Whitehall was on the mic for proceedings, and in a recent appearance on The Chris Moyles Show, he opened up on the many hurdles had to be jumped to reach his final script.

Included in that process was standing his ground on a joke about Mercedes driver George Russell, one which was cleared thanks to an all-important voice note.

“On that F1 show, I had a line in my script, where I said that he basically reminded me of the TikTok trainspotter [Francis Bourgeois], and so I had a reference to that,” Whitehall revealed.

“It was heavily policed, my script for that F1 thing, and they went through everything and they were like, ‘Right, you have to, no Bernie Ecclestone jokes, you can’t talk about Flavio Briatore’… yeah.

“Anyway, so they all got cut. There was this one George Russell joke, and they were like, ‘Yeah, you can’t do that.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m sure it’s fine, he’s going to find that funny.'”

“‘You can’t do it,'” was the reiteration to Whitehall.

He continued: “I was like, ‘Is there any way round it?’ They were like, ‘Well, unless he gave you his permission.'”

At that point, Whitehall’s request was granted for Russell’s representatives to be informed. Whitehall was told that he could voice note himself delivering the joke and it would be played to Russell.

“And so I voice noted the joke. I was like, ‘Hi George, so, you’re going to be at this show at the O2, and I’m going to do this joke about you, and I’m just asking for your permission to do it.’

“So I did the joke, sent it to him, and he was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely fine!’ They all have a sense of humour. It’s all the people sort of around them that are terrified.”

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Whitehall was asked how much of an F1 fan he was, at the point that he was offered the gig.

“I was a big Drive to Survive fan,” he replied, “so, I wasn’t as into it as I am now.”

Netflix’s hit F1 docuseries Drive to Survive has been credited as the key stimulus behind the sport’s extreme popularity boost seen over recent years.

“In the way that Drive to Survive works, you love all of those sub-stories and you love seeing Kimi Antonelli coming into form, or Hulkenberg getting his first podium after all those years,” Whitehall continued. “You can really get invested in those stories, rather than necessarily just being affiliated with one team.”

Asked where he is now on the scale of F1 fandom, Whitehall confirmed: “Yeah, I love it. I’m going to Vegas next week.”

That is a trip to the Las Vegas Grand Prix courtesy of Mercedes, and will mark Whitehall’s first visit to the Formula 1 since Singapore, where he “ended up in a hotel gym with George Russell at one o’clock in the morning, just me and him.”

Whitehall was clearly Russell’s lucky charm, as his fellow Brit claimed victory at the Singapore Grand Prix, his second of the season.

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