Man sneaks F1 driver into fake Grand Prix vs amateur racers to see if they'd realize

YouTuber Max Fosh was invited to compete in a lawnmower race and decided to switch himself out with an F1 driver to give himself a chance at victory.

Fosh was invited to compete in the Lawn Mower Racing World Championships – yes, that’s a real thing – held every summer in a field in Surrey.

The problem? He wasn’t exactly a seasoned racer, and a race against lawnmowers with race engines wasn’t the place to fake it.

So instead of risking humiliation, he came up with a plan: swap himself out with a professional Formula 1 driver and see if anyone would notice.

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An F1 driver and an amateur lawnmower race

Max’s secret weapon was Jack Aitken – an F1 driver who made his debut at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. 

The plan was simple: Max would drive the warm-up lap, then sneak away while Jack, dressed in identical race gear, jumped on the mower for the real heat. 

To everyone else, it would still look like Max out there.

At first, the switch worked. 

Jack blasted off the start and grabbed the lead, Max grinning on the sidelines. 

But lawnmower racing isn’t Formula 1. 

The machines bounce violently, grip is a joke, and the fast line changes with every rut. 

After a few laps Jack admitted it ‘feels like riding a horse,’ which explained why he was suddenly sliding wide and getting swallowed by the locals.

By the final laps the disguise was crumbling. 

Max ditched the idea of swapping back. Instead, he grabbed the checkered flag and waved the race off himself.

The paddock froze: “What have you done? Who is that?”

Only then did he spill it – the guy they’d been overtaking was a Formula 1 driver on a garden tractor.

Why F1 skills don’t always transfer

Initially, sneaking a Grand Prix F1 driver into a field of amateurs might’ve seemed unfair. 

But what Max and Jack learned is these machines demand a completely different skill set. 

Lawn mowers don’t behave like karts or F1 cars – they’re heavy, twitchy, and powered by shed-built engines that buck like broncos across mud and ruts. 

Precision honed on smooth circuits means nothing when the track is basically a churned-up farm field.

That contrast is exactly why the stunt fell apart. 

Max had tried the same trick before at a go-kart track, where the switch was seamless and the pro breezed through the field. 

Instead of cruising to victory, Jack Aitken got swallowed up by locals who knew every bump in the grass.

Max didn’t take home a world title, but his prank handed the paddock something better – bragging rights over a Grand Prix driver. 

And in a lawnmower race, that’s a trophy you can’t buy.

Head over to Max’s YouTube channel for more hilarious pranks.

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