Posted by It’s Valentines Day today, the day where we’re all expected to provide those very special to us with flowers, chocolate, saucy underwear or other red items in heart shaped boxes. Whether you go in for the commercial monstrosity that is Saint Valentines day or not, to celebrate the day here at the Sett (F1 Badger HQ) we’re looking at some of the wives and girlfriends of those involved in modern day grand prix racing…
Button impressed his (then new) girlfriend with victory in Melbourne 2009
Let’s start with the current world champion, Mr Jenson Button who’s with the lingerie model Jessica Mitchibata. Rumours were spread after the Australian grand prix last year when Button was late attending the post-race press conference, people saying his new girlfriend delayed him. True or not, it’s very rock’n'roll. It’s not all lust though, the couple have been together for ages now and it seems Jessica may finally be able to make Jenson hers – many other girls have failed, but this couple are still smokin’ hot. There are plenty of more revealing pictures if you type her name into the famous search engine, but here at Badger we like this picture of the happy couple and prefer not to force gratuitous ‘lingerie’ shots of Jenson’s girl.
Felipe's now wife - Rafaela Bassi
Felipe has gone one further than Jenson and actually married the quite beautiful Rafaela Bassi – also after marrying her, he’s also now a father.
Fernando and his lady Raquel Rosario
Here’s Fernando with his sweetheart and wife, Raquel Rosario. Raquel is far from being just a pretty face – she started playing guitar at age 14 and was pretty good, so good in fact that she is now a professional – the vocalist for Spanish group El Sueño de Morfeo – you can read more about them here.
That’s Badger’s top 3 – don’t worry we’ve spared you all from Flavio and his girlfriend, but if you really are intrigued, here a picture of the ex-Renault boss with his lady, courtesy of tabloid trash, the Daily Mail: Flavio goes for a Swim (warning, graphic content – Badger is not responsible for the content of external sites)
One driver (besides the recently single Lewis Hamilton) who won’t be celebrating Valentines Day with roses and chocolate is Kimi Raikkonen – not because he’s not into it, but because in Finland the day has been somewhat re-branded as ‘Friendship Day’ – where the clean-living Finnish celebrate the love of friendship.
Happy Valentines day to you all..
For more WAGS, past and present see Badger’s piece on Marriage in F1 Paddock
I have no idea what a WAG is, but seems to be something to do with gf’s.
Kimi’s Mrs. is rather lovely and i’m liking Fernando’s girl too. I just wish we saw less of all gf’s during the course of a GP.
Like the 2008 title showdown for example where there was something happening on-track at every moment and the director thought we might be interested in seeing Nicole jumping up and down in the pits every 5mins.
totally agree, she pisses me off so much. i wished she’d just seriously piss off. wont be seeing any more of her though
p.s. WAG is short for Wives and Girlfriends just if you wanted to know.
I remember Mika Hakkinen’s wife was always given a lot of TV time when he was winning titles. You never see Mark Webber’s partner, Ann. They own a Llama together. Giancarlo Fisichella’s wife Carlotta is a former showgirl but you never see her either. It’s down to the women themselves whether they get their faces on TV.
Perhaps Mika’s wife was there for the fame and publicity. She divorced him shortly after he finished in DTM. Whether that’s a coincidence or not, i don’t know.
The best idea would be to make the wives/gf’s the corresponding grid girl. That would mean they get their mugs on tv and there’s no excuse for the cameras to be switching to the garages everytime someone gets involved in a wheel to wheel scrap.