Mystery Driver Takes a GP2 Race Car on a Public Highway, and Police Aren’t Happy
This isn’t the first time the car’s been spotted, but the helmet makes it hard to identify the owner.
A video making the rounds on social media shows what appears to be a Ferrari F1 car driving on the highway somewhere in the Czech Republic. However, contrary to endless reports, this is not an F1 car, but an old GP2 car dressed to look like a Ferrari F1 car from the Schumacher era. Regardless of the provenance of the racing car—and as you can imagine—this is also highly dangerous and very illegal.
Local reports claim that local police have yet to identify the driver and are currently looking for them. But according to a Czech news outlet, this character is a repeat offender, having previously taken their GP2 car on the highway back in 2019. Police back then tracked down the owner but couldn't prove who was driving because the culprit was wearing a helmet. Sounds like they pretty much got away with it and are probably up to it again.
GP2 cars might look like Formula 1 cars but they aren't. They're similar, as GP2 (now Formula 2) was an F1 support series from 2005-2008. The FIA made the GP2 a spec series, meaning they all featured the same chassis, engine, and other major components. They're all equal in order to highlight driver skill and not budget. The car seen on the video was likely built by Dallara and featured a Mecachrome-built, naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V8 pushing 603 horsepower. Obviously, nothing about this machine is road-legal.
At one point in the video, once the crossover slowing down the GP2 driver moves out of the way, the driver opens it up and you get to hear the racing-bred V8 wail. As you might expect, it sounds pretty incredible. What's interesting about the driver, though, is that they didn't act recklessly. Sure, they opened the taps a few times but mostly seemed to respect the rules of the road, didn't weave through traffic, and only passed other cars when it was clear. They were mostly just chilling on the highway.
Race cars of this kind are built for a specific set of conditions, meaning racetracks shared with other vehicles of the same type. Crash structures and other components are built specifically for those environments, so taking this car on a public road not only is dangerous for the driver but also for others. The number of things that could go wrong is many and they could have very serious consequences.
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