{"id":139577,"date":"2025-09-13T06:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T06:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/139577\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T06:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T06:46:08","slug":"police-catch-phantom-driver-who-caused-havoc-on-motorways-and-broke-road-rules-in-a-formula-1-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/139577\/","title":{"rendered":"Police catch ‘phantom’ driver who caused havoc on motorways and broke road rules in a Formula 1 car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have finally caught the “phantom” motorist who drove a Formula 1 car on the motorway, with the police targeting the motorist for traffic offences.<\/p>\n

Czech authorities have detained a motorist who repeatedly operated a racing vehicle on public roads over a six-year period. <\/p>\n

The man had been navigating motorways in a Formula 1-style car since 2019, evading identification despite multiple sightings.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers tracked the distinctive red vehicle to a residence in Buk, a village approximately 60 kilometres south-west of Prague. <\/p>\n

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing motoring@gbnews.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ‘phantom speeder’ has been uncovered as a 51-year-old man <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

X\/POLICIECZ<\/p>\n

The arrest of the man followed the most recent incident on Sunday when the racing car was observed travelling on the D4 motorway.<\/p>\n

The driver now faces penalties for operating a vehicle lacking essential road safety equipment, including headlights, indicators and registration plates.<\/p>\n

Posting on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, authorities suggested that they may also revoke his driving privileges.<\/p>\n

The vehicle, adorned in complete Ferrari racing colours, was located after witnesses reported its latest appearance on Sunday morning. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The F1 car has been caught on Czech motorways multiple times in recent years <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

X\/POLICIECZ<\/p>\n

Footage captured the distinctive car refuelling at a petrol station and travelling along the D4 motorway.<\/p>\n

Officers followed the racing car to a property in Buk where they confronted the 51-year-old driver.<\/p>\n

The vehicle is actually a Dallara GP2\/08, an Italian-manufactured car designed for the GP2 Series, which served as a developmental championship for Formula 1 and has since been renamed the FIA Formula 2 Championship.<\/p>\n

Previous attempts to identify the driver had failed because he consistently wore a helmet during his motorway excursions.<\/p>\n

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:<\/p>\n

The suspect initially refused to exit his vehicle when officers arrived at his property, remaining seated in the racing car outside his garage.<\/p>\n

He argued that police were unlawfully on his private premises, according to video footage recorded by local media.<\/p>\n

The man eventually agreed to accompany officers to the police station while still dressed in his red racing suit and helmet.<\/p>\n

Once there, he declined to respond to any questions during interrogation, according to subsequent media reports.<\/p>\n

Police had previously encountered the vehicle’s owner in 2019 following initial motorway sightings, but that individual denied operating the car on public roads.<\/p>\n

A man identified as the driver’s son told local media that “several dozen police cars and a helicopter” surrounded the house, describing this as an excessive reaction “to a supposed traffic violation”.<\/p>\n

He said: “[The police] allegedly saw us towing a Formula 1 car which they claimed had been speeding along the motorway a few minutes earlier – of course we know absolutely nothing about this.”<\/p>\n

It remains uncertain whether the arrested individual is the same person the police questioned in 2019, when the racing car first appeared on Czech motorways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have finally caught the “phantom” motorist who drove a Formula 1 car on the motorway, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,843,95506,2057,817,813,816,1625,44,13296,588,85,1346],"class_list":["post-139577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cars","tag-driving-laws","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-sgg","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}