Sebastian Vettel has always been a light-hearted and relaxed person, and his peers have experienced the best of it. Former Ferrari strategist Ruth Buscombe also got a first-hand experience of the German’s quirky traits of pranking people he meets. On The Fast and the Curious podcast, she revealed an anecdote of Vettel’s hilarious interaction with an airport security person.
Buscombe stated, “We are on the flight together to Canada. And we’re in the queue to go to passport control.” She mentioned how the airport security asked Vettel, “What are you in Montreal for?”. On this, the then-Ferrari driver mentioned he was there for the Canadian GP.
This triggered a further conversation that the four-time champion led to a hilarious exchange, that made Buscombe chuckle. The security asked him if he had a ticket for the race weekend. Vettel denied which gave rise to the further cross question, “Well what kind of view do you reckon you’re going to have of the race?”.
The German replied, “Pretty good view actually”. This response made the podcast hosts chuckle too just like Buscombe might have back in the day. She revealed that the security person did not stop there, and asked the next question, “What bit of the track are you going to see?”
Vettel’s response was, “All of it”. Buscombe revealed that she was trying to make Vettel stop his hilarious pranking and reveal his true identity. The four-time champion joined Ferrari in 2015, three years after Buscombe became a strategist at the Maranello team.
However, the latter left in 2016 to join Haas, while Vettel drove for Ferrari till 2020. Buscombe then also revealed how she ended up at Ferrari despite being a McLaren fan.
Ruth Buscombe did not wish to join Ferrari but changed her mind
Buscombe revealed how she grew up in a household where McLaren was their favorite team. Back then, McLaren versus Ferrari was the top battle in F1. Thus, when it came to applying for a job, she had preferred to join the Woking outfit.
Luckily, she landed interviews with both teams. However, the Ferrari interview was scheduled before the McLaren one. Buscombe decided to go for it as it was a free trip to Italy. Moreover, she wanted to gain the experience of a Formula 1 interview before going for her dream interview at McLaren.
However, when she walked into the Maranello team’s base, the environment started to change her mind. Due to the race base and the entire aura of the factory, Buscombe got the pure Ferrari experience.
She mentioned on the podcast how she also got to have lunch – pizza and pasta after her interview. It was quite a memorable experience for a job interview as Buscombe got a tour of the Ferrari factory as well.
Relative to this, when she went for the McLaren interview, it was quite “gray and boring”, according to her. Hence, eventually, she joined Ferrari despite her previous preference for McLaren.
