Phantom driver arrested after driving illegal F1-style car on public roads for years

The news of the arrest of a 51-year-old man near a gas station in Dobříš, Czech Republic, has been making headlines in the past few hours.

According to some local media, he is a former police officer. The man had been repeatedly spotted driving a red single-seater that looked very much like a Ferrari F1 car since 2019, though it later turned out to be a custom Dallara GP2/08. Each time, he wore a helmet and full racing gear, as if he were a professional driver.

Czech police had already managed to identify both the car and the driver, but due to a lack of evidence—and especially because he always wore a helmet—they were unable to determine whether he had actually driven such a vehicle on public roads before, something that is, of course, illegal in the Czech Republic.

The man, escorted to a property in a small village, initially resisted by telling the officers they were trespassing on private property, but eventually stepped out of the car and was arrested.

He now faces a hefty fine and a driving ban ranging from six to twelve months. On top of that, there are further charges for operating an unregistered vehicle without license plates, insurance, or a motorway vignette, as well as for posing a threat to public safety.

“Thanks to information from drivers, we stopped a Formula driver this morning in the village of Buk who was speeding along the D4 motorway,” the Czech Republic Police wrote on X.