Through the F1 75 launch event at London\u2019s O2 back in February, Formula 1 celebrated its 75th anniversary season as it neared commencement.<\/p>\n
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 \u201chave a sense of humour\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jack Whitehall opens up on \u2018heavily policed\u2019 F1 75 script<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn 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,\u201d Whitehall revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was heavily policed, my script for that F1 thing, and they went through everything and they were like, \u2018Right, you have to, no Bernie Ecclestone jokes, you can\u2019t talk about Flavio Briatore\u2019\u2026 yeah.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyway, so they all got cut. There was this one George Russell joke, and they were like, \u2018Yeah, you can\u2019t do that.\u2019 I was like, \u2018No, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s fine, he\u2019s going to find that funny.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018You can\u2019t do it,’\u201d was the reiteration to Whitehall.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI was like, \u2018Is there any way round it?\u2019 They were like, \u2018Well, unless he gave you his permission.’\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, Whitehall\u2019s request was granted for Russell\u2019s representatives to be informed. Whitehall was told that he could voice note himself delivering the joke and it would be played to Russell.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so I voice noted the joke. I was like, \u2018Hi George, so, you\u2019re going to be at this show at the O2, and I\u2019m going to do this joke about you, and I\u2019m just asking for your permission to do it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I did the joke, sent it to him, and he was like, \u2018Yeah, absolutely fine!\u2019 They all have a sense of humour. It\u2019s all the people sort of around them that are terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n
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