Ahh, June! Always a great time to be British. Wimbledon, (relatively) nice weather, Glastonbury, and the build up to Silverstone.

I grew up a stone’s throw from Silverstone and was raised on my granddad and my dad watching the F1 season each year. I remember asking to fill in the wall chart and being intrigued by the different flags next to each name. What is this flag? Where are these people from? What language do they speak? Good times.

Back in 2011, I was lucky enough to bag myself tickets to Singapore Grand Prix! The fact that Shakira was playing had nothing to do with my decision to go. It was Rick Astley that made me book. I kid, but brace yourself for the coolest sentence ever…Rick Astley brushed past me but I couldn’t get a photo because I had a fresh coconut in my hand.

Anyway, enough about me. You came here to read about language, right? What does Formula 1 have to do with language? Well, I could go on and on about how the Ferrari team radio is music to my ears, or how all the non-natives must have the same teacher because they all say ‘for sure’, but this post is all about linguistically talented F1 drivers. If you think these guys can do nothing but drive, think again. Many of them excel in their language talents. I’ve found some example videos of them chatting away in different languages where possible but I haven’t included their native language or English videos because, hey, they all speak English!

And now to those Formula 1 drivers that speak multiple languages…

Red Bull

Max Verstappen

Verstappen speaks Dutch, English, German and maaaybe even a little French as this video shows…

Related: 12 Top Tips: How to Improve German Pronunciation

Sergio Perez

Perez is Mexican, and speaks Spanish, English and a little teeny tiny bit of German according to this interview that shares he lived in Germany when he was younger.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc was born in Monaco, where many F1 drivers live. However, being born there helped Leclerc expand his languages to speak French, Italian, and English, with a bit of Spanish too.

Here he is speaking Italian:

Related: Guest Post: 3 Commonly Used Italian Words Every Beginner Should Know

Carlos Sainz

A native Spanish speaker, Sainz also speaks fluent Italian and English.

Here he is teaching Lando Norris some Spanish…

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton appears to have made the most common mistake that new language learners make – too much too soon. This article claims he tried and quit French after a short intensive burst studying the language. 6 weeks of lessons in 6 days? Yeah, I’d quit too!

There’s a reason I support slower and more sustainable language learning and I think Lewis quickly discovered why!

Other than that, I couldn’t find a great deal about Hamilton’s linguistic flair but I did come across this…

Related: How to Learn Multiple Languages At Once

Alpine

Pierre Gasly

Gasly speaks French, English and a decent amount of Italian as this video of him streaming with Leclerc demonstrates.

Esteban Ocon

Native to France, Ocon speaks French as his first language. He also speaks English, Italian and Spanish according to Wikipedia. Here he is speaking Italian…

McLaren

Lando Norris

Norris’ father is British and his mother is Belgian. He speaks English, and knows some basic Flemish Dutch, as well as a few phrases in Spanish and Italian too. Hear him speak a little Italian at the start of this video:

Oscar Piastri

I couldn’t find much about Piastri as he’s relatively new to F1. Maybe I’ll be able to update this post in a year or so with a video of him speaking 17 languages or something – who knows!

Related: How to Start Speaking a New Language For The First Time

Alfa Romeo

Zhou Guanyu

The first Chinese driver to compete in F1 speaks Chinese (I think Mandarin) and English. I couldn’t find much more than that but from this video, it looks like Italian is pretty new to him.

Valtteri Bottas

The only Finn left on the grid since Kimi’s retirement, Bottas speaks Finnish, as well as English.

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso

Alonso speaks 4 languages. Yay! Spanish, English, French and Italian. And, handily, there’s a video on YouTube of him speaking all four.

Related: How to Manage Daily Habits for Multiple Languages

Lance Stroll

Stroll is Canadian, which isn’t a guarantee of being bilingual, but it can help! He speaks English and French. Turn the volume up on this video to hear Stroll speak in French.

Related: Language Stories – Episode 3: Montreal: Beyond Bilingual

Haas

Kevin Magnussen

Being a native Dane, Magnussen speaks Danish and English. I couldn’t find much more about other languages, but I did find this interview of him speaking Danish.

Nico Hulkenberg

A native German speaker, Hulkenberg also speaks English and Dutch too. He grew up quite close to the Dutch border, which may have helped!

AlphaTauri

Yuki Tsunoda

Tsunoda is one of few Japanese drivers to race in F1. He speaks Japanese, English and…probably not French!

This interview is a great example of him speaking both English and Japanese.

Nyck de Vries

Relatively new F1 driver de Vries speaks 4 languages! His native Dutch, and English and French, as well as decent Italian. I couldn’t find many videos, but here he is in a Dutch interview.

Williams

Logan Sargeant 

2023 American rookie speaks English only as far as I know, but we’ll see if more info emerges as his F1 career grows.

Alex Albon

Albon has a Thai mother and British father and choses to race representing Thailand. He speaks English and Thai, although does say his Thai isn’t as good as his English.