Jack Whitehall had to run joke past George Russell in 'heavily policed' script

Jack Whitehall has revealed he had to ask George Russell's permission for a joke to be included in his script for the F1 75 show.

The British comedian was selected to host the star-studded evening at The O2 in London back in February as all 10 teams and 20 drivers came together for F1’s first-ever joint season launch.

Whitehall stole the show by landing some hilarious gags at the expense of F1’s most famous faces as he roasted the drivers and other celebrities.

Whitehall wasn't shy from touching on awkward moments and poked fun at Max Verstappen and Russell’s beef towards the end of the 2024 season. 

Speaking to The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Whitehall revealed he nearly had a joke about Russell vetoed until he asked the Mercedes driver directly for permission to keep it.

Whitehall was also prevented from making jokes about former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore in a "heavily-policed" script.

“On that F1 show, I had a line in my script where I said that he basically reminded me of the TikTok Trainspotter,” Whitehall said.

“And so, I had a reference to that, and it was heavily policed, my script, for that F1 thing. And they went through everything and they were like, ‘Right, no Bernie Ecclestone jokes. You can't talk about Flavio Briatore.’

“So they all got cut. There was this one George Russell joke and they were like, ‘Yeah, you can't do that.’ I was like, ‘No, I'm sure that it's fine. He's going to find that funny.’ They're like, ‘You can't do it.’

Whitehall sent voice-note to Russell

“I was like, ‘Well, is there any way around it?’ And they were like, ‘Well, unless he gave you his permission.’ I was like, ‘Well, can I get the joke to him?’ And they were like, ‘Well, ask his team.’

“So, they asked his team. I then had to – and I've never had to do this before – they said, ‘Yes, you can voice note you telling the joke to his team and then they will play it to George.’”

Much to Whitehall’s relief, Russell had no problem with the joke he had planned.

“I voice-noted the joke to George. I was like, ‘Hi, George! So, you're going to be at this show at the O2 and I'm going to do this joke about you, and I'm just asking for your permission to do it’,” he explained.

“So, I did the joke, sent it to him, and he was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely fine.’ Because they all have a sense of humour. It's all the people sort of around them that are terrified. But it was quite surreal.”