Multi-lingual F1 personalities

[PTRACER]

Last post from previous page:

Doesn't work for me. I think there's a regional block on the videos on that site

[hocuspocus]

Heinz H. Frentzen speaks spanish ( mother from that country ) I remember heard him talking to argentinian TV long time ago

[erwin greven]

Haven't found anything of Barrichello talking Dutch yet, but here is Nico Hülkenberg showing his fluency in Dutch.


EDIT: This one should work

Otherwise PM me.

[caneparo]

Frank Williams also speaks fluent Italian - there's a Channel 4 documentary about Williams' 1988 season on Youtube somewhere, and part of it shows him calling an Italian sponsor in his office. (not sure who though, I can't remember an Italian sponsor on their '88 cars?)

Indeed he is fluent in italian. Frank was dealing racing car parts between italy and england back in the days and also worked with dallara and iso-rivolta. I ve always heard him speaking in italian during interviews.
In 1988 the italian sponsor on the williams was the denim aftershave which was very popular in the 80s thanks to this commercial.

[caneparo]

Gilles villeneuve and pironi spoke italian, the latter being son of an italian. Also alesi is a son of an italian. Rene arnoux speaks italian (worked for rai in 1997) and jacques villeneuve speaks a perfect italian, currently doing post race show at sky



Ricciardo speaks a bad italian and also niki lauda speaks an italian with such a strong german accent which is typical of the jokes about teutonics.


Same story for berger, he spoke a terrible italian at the times of ferrari and forgot it a couple months later he passed to benetton
Ah of course mario andretti speaks italian too.

[erwin greven]

Most Dutch drivers speak English and German. Maybe some, and in particular from Brabant and Limburg, speak also French.

[Puhis]

Keke Rosberg speaks fluent German thanks to living there for a long time. He has even appeared as a colour commentator in some German F1 broadcasts, I believe. In addition, he is naturally fluent in Finnish, English, and I have no source for this but I am fairly positive he knows Swedish, too. Not only because it's mandatory in Finnish schools*, but also because he was born in Solna and grew up in some Swedish-speaking towns in Finland.

Here is Keke being interviewed auf Deutsch, back in the day:




*While attending Swedish lessons and being taught Swedish is mandatory during middle school, and is also frequently taught at higher levels, it doesn't necessarily mean one actually learns the language. In fact, usually students develop an acute case of damna moralis during those lessons. Also, the question of dropping mandatory Swedish altogether comes up from time to time.