It may not provide the obvious high-octane rush of speeding around a racetrack in a top of the range machine, but the classic card game of poker has quickly become a favourite off-track activity with several top F1 drivers, including some of our favourite Ferrari Scuderia heroes.
Poker and F1
On the surface, the two disciplines couldn’t be any further apart. One is extremely physical and relies on the most advanced automobile technology, the other is strictly mental and needs nothing more than a flat surface, a deck of cards, and poker chips. There are, however, a lot of parallels between the two that are seeing drivers take to the felt during, and after their racing careers.
To be successful and to reach the very top, an aspiring F1 driver needs mental grit, effective decision-making skills, and the ability to take calculated risks. These are all qualities that make for a good poker player too. Even though it’s a mind sport, there’s a lot of mental agility required to be able to process all the information in a game and then make the appropriate decisions. Choosing the right time to push forward can be just as critical in a poker tournament as it can on the racetrack.
Drivers who love to play
As anyone who’s attended the annual Monaco Grand Prix knows, during the after-hours the palatial Casino de Monte Carlo can be a great place to spot F1 drivers. There are also a number of drivers past and present who’ve taken to the felt as a side career, including Eddie Irvine and Tonio Liuzzi, who famously competed in a 2009 poker tournament that was televised and broadcast in Italy.
There are even a handful of notable drivers who’ve gone on to have quite the career in the poker world, such as:
Michael Schumacher
Possibly the greatest Ferrari driver of all time, Michael Schumacher has become known the world over for his unstoppable racing skills. With a total of 91 professional wins to his name, including seven world championships, Schumacher’s legacy F1 legacy has inspired even the likes of Lewis Hamilton to name him as the greatest driver of all time.
He’s also a huge lover of poker, having competed in charity tournaments against his fellow drivers and even playing it during his downtime on the racetrack.
Fernando Alonso
Quite possibly Spain’s answer to Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso is a mainstay of both F1 and professional racing. Having started his career in 1999, he’s an absolute veteran on the track, and his two consecutive championship wins (2005 – 2006), 97 podium appearances, and 22 pole positions have earned him a reputation among fellow drivers as being one of the best in the history of the sport.
Away from the track, Alonso has quietly – and not so quietly – competed in numerous poker tournaments, and is a regular player in the world’s most elite casinos.
Giancarlo Fisichella
A familiar face on the F1 circuit, ‘Fisi’ has been a member of team Ferrari (he’s still a member of the Italian team), Benetton, Sauber, Renault, Jordan, and Minardi during his almost 20-year professional career. With three wins under his belt, including his memorable debut in the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix, he may not have reached the upper echelons of the sport like Schumacher, but he’s still a favourite among Italian fans.
He’s also quite the skilled poker player. Like many of today’s leading pro tournament players, Fisichella honed his skills playing in online poker platforms, finding the various resources like videos on the mechanics of poker to be incredibly beneficial to his development in the game.
Robert Kubica
The first, and so far, only Polish driver to have competed in F1, Robert Kubica has raced for BMW Sauber, Renault and Williams during his career. He memorably won the Canadian Grand Prix in 2008 and made a triumphant return to professional racecar driving following a devastating crash in 2011.
Kubica has also earned a reputation among the poker elite as one of the best players in Formula one, although he modestly refers to himself as “not a good one”. Having had a lifelong passion for the card game, he first started to explore competing in poker tournaments following his crash, when fellow driver Timo Glock brought him some poker equipment to keep his mind active during his recovery. Although you won’t find his name on top of world tournament leader boards today having reportedly “fallen out of love with the game”, it sounds like there’ll be a seat waiting for him at the table when he does return.
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