It might seem like a true challenge to think a McLaren F1 GTR can run on diesel, but Francois Perrodo made this mistake and shared it with the whole world. Here’s what we can all learn from it.
Don’t you just hate it when you’re mean to your car for no reason? Now try and amplify that feeling tenfold. That’s how World Endurance Championship (WEC) driver Francois Perrodo must’ve felt when he realized that his McLaren F1 GTR’s tank was filled to the brim with diesel instead of gas.
But there aren’t many reasons to be worried by a mishap like this one. In a car like the McLaren F1 GTR there’s no chance the fuel will ignite. It still requires a check-up, and you must replace the fuel and probably a filter or two, but other than that nothing of importance will take place. The only thing that humbles a man is draining the tank. It gives you time to ponder.
The man explains how it happened. He decided with a couple of friends to go on a “Sunday morning blast,” but the plan was already starting to look like it won’t happen as intended. The F1 GTR was acting suspicious. He thought that a race car being temperamental is fine, so they all pulled over and waited for a local expert before even getting a couple of miles on. When the guy came and identified the problem, the news Perredo got made him instantly blush like a teenager. He had diesel in his F1 GTR.
He told his followers on Instagram that he blames the gas station for having similar nozzles for different fuels, but admits he’s at fault for not paying enough attention. Having a good sense of humor, the WEC champion also points out that now his dog laughs at him because he made such a beginner’s mistake.
Friends being friends, they’ve applied a sticker on the now drivable F1 GTR that says “Francois No Diesel!” Now he surely won’t mix fuels ever again.
The lesson here is simple: no matter how good you think you are and no matter how many times you’ve proven that you possess the right abilities for something, mistakes happen. And you shouldn’t beat yourself about them. Instead, embrace what went wrong and get over it by remembering not to do it again. Life goes on!
If it didn’t happen to you yet, then wait. You might go through this too, even if you’re very careful. It happens to the best of us, unless, of course, you’ve already decided not to enjoy an internal combustion engine car ever again. In this case, all you need is the right socket, a helmet, or a bus ticket.
But there aren’t many reasons to be worried by a mishap like this one. In a car like the McLaren F1 GTR there’s no chance the fuel will ignite. It still requires a check-up, and you must replace the fuel and probably a filter or two, but other than that nothing of importance will take place. The only thing that humbles a man is draining the tank. It gives you time to ponder.
The man explains how it happened. He decided with a couple of friends to go on a “Sunday morning blast,” but the plan was already starting to look like it won’t happen as intended. The F1 GTR was acting suspicious. He thought that a race car being temperamental is fine, so they all pulled over and waited for a local expert before even getting a couple of miles on. When the guy came and identified the problem, the news Perredo got made him instantly blush like a teenager. He had diesel in his F1 GTR.
He told his followers on Instagram that he blames the gas station for having similar nozzles for different fuels, but admits he’s at fault for not paying enough attention. Having a good sense of humor, the WEC champion also points out that now his dog laughs at him because he made such a beginner’s mistake.
Friends being friends, they’ve applied a sticker on the now drivable F1 GTR that says “Francois No Diesel!” Now he surely won’t mix fuels ever again.
The lesson here is simple: no matter how good you think you are and no matter how many times you’ve proven that you possess the right abilities for something, mistakes happen. And you shouldn’t beat yourself about them. Instead, embrace what went wrong and get over it by remembering not to do it again. Life goes on!
If it didn’t happen to you yet, then wait. You might go through this too, even if you’re very careful. It happens to the best of us, unless, of course, you’ve already decided not to enjoy an internal combustion engine car ever again. In this case, all you need is the right socket, a helmet, or a bus ticket.