Comedian Conor Moore has mastered plenty of F1 impressions, but none tops Aussie favourite

Irish comedian Conor Moore has gone viral for his hilarious and uncanny F1 impressions. He explains his craft to REBECCA WILLIAMS, and reveals what the sport’s biggest stars think of him.

He is the Irish comedian who takes the mickey out of Formula 1’s stars and now Conor Moore has revealed his favourite drivers to impersonate and their reactions, including his first meeting with Australian Daniel Ricciardo on a US golf course.

Moore has established a huge following of more than 2 millions fans across social media for his comedy skits impersonating the likes of Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen, Christian Horner, Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton.

He started his career impersonating Irish personalities and then moved onto football and golf before English golfer Ian Poulter suggested he should try his hand at Formula 1 for its “drama, drama, drama”.

After watching a few episodes of Drive to Survive, Moore didn’t need much convincing that there was endless material for him to work with in F1.

The heavy Spanish accent of Ferrari’s Sainz was the first impression Moore tried, followed by Ricciardo’s broad Aussie drawl.

It would probably come as no surprise to Moore’s followers that Sainz is his favourite driver to perform.

“After about three episodes (of Drive to Survive), I looked at my wife and said ‘My name is Carlos Sainz and I am a driver with Ferrari’ and she just started laughing and said ‘That’s good’,” Moore said.

“The next one - because Danny Ric was so prominent in the first few years - and you know Danny he is always smiling, so that was my second one.

“Then I had to really work on the rest.

“(My favourite) has to be Carlos Sainz. It was just so easy … it is a cross between, how would you say, it’s a little bit like Kermit the frog.

“That was definitely the easiest one to pick up and it’s also the most fun.

“Every time I do it, people always laugh or if I’m at a Grand Prix and they say give me one (impersonation), I always give him (Carlos).”

So what do Formula One’s biggest stars think of Moore’s impersonations?

The reaction, Moore said, has been overwhelmingly positive.

Although he did admit to feeling a bit nervous initially about what they all thought.

“It’s been amazing, genuinely very humbling,” Moore said.

“I’ve been to a couple of Grand Prix … Carlos, I was (impersonating him next to him) and we were live on TV and he took like three seconds (to respond) and to me it was like 25 seconds and I was like ‘Oh, my god, say something’.

“And he was like ‘It’s just incredible, I don’t know how you do it. It’s very good, it’s very good’.

“When I met Danny, he was probably the most fun reaction I got. I was with Crofty (F1 commentator David Croft) and a few guys and we were playing golf and it was at the US Grand Prix in Texas and Danny appeared out of nowhere and my heart started going a little bit fast because you kind of don’t know if they like it or not.

“He just starts talking and I was like ‘Oh man, listen I’m sorry in case you’re offended by any of that’ and he said ‘No mate, I love it, don’t apologise. It’s really good’.

“I was like ‘Alright, cool’ and I walked off and as I walked off he goes ‘You say shit about me again and see what happens mate’ (laughing).”

Moore has even had his work critiqued by the world champion.

“I did a Christmas gig for Red Bull over in London about 18 months ago and got up and (impersonated Max) and I did pretty much everybody in front of the whole Red Bull crew,” Moore said.

“And he was like ‘It’s very good, I have to say, it’s very good. I think you get me quite good, but I am not that aggressive.’”

Verstappen was the subject of one of Moore’s funniest sketches when he features the Red Bull star behind the drivers wheel singing to the tune of the Spice Girls’ hit Stop.

“I actually wrote to Red Bull and I said I need a helmet, I have got this skit coming and I’m going to do like the Spice Girls ‘Max Verstappen, thank you very much’,” Moore said.

“They were brilliant, the guys at Red Bull, they sent me this helmet and it came to my house and I was like ‘Oh my God, this is amazing. What a souvenir’.

“I put it on, I did my skit and that thing blew up and I had to give it back, disappointingly.

“They were like ‘Do you know how expensive that helmet is?’ I was like ‘Of course, I knew that’ but I didn’t and I was hoping I could keep it.”

But Moore’s favourite sketch was one in which he didn’t even utter a word.

“My favourite skit I didn’t even speak in,” Moore said.

“I did the intro for the Formula 1 season, but it has got 10 million hits or something. As we say in Ireland, I took the mick out of the poses that they are making for the F1 intro.

“That would be one of my favourites.”

Moore said he often found himself bursting into bouts of Sainz or Ricciardo impersonations as he walked around the house at home.

The videos he posts are viewed in their millions, with more than half a million followers to both his YouTube and Instagram pages.

But he admitted there were some drivers he still needed to work on, including McLaren’s Australian young gun Oscar Piastri.

“(The hardest) was Charles (Leclerc) for a while and Toto (Wolff) is tough because I am a quite small individual and there are certain times where I find big guys with big heavy voices and deep voices are tough for me to do,” Moore said.

“Toto has got that kind of ‘I’ll be back’ he’s like the Terminator. It’s a bit like that, so my Toto is a little bit rusty, so those two I find quite hard to do.

“Oscar is one I am genuinely working on at the minute, along with a couple of others because he is going to be a force to be reckoned with I think. He’s performing well and he’s going to be on podiums, so the more of those guys I have, the more ideas I get.

“Daniel has a lot more of a distinct voice I think. Oscar’s voice, it’s the same in America when I am doing golfers’ when they have got that middle of the road accent, I find that harder.”

Moore said his impersonations were all performed in the spirit of good fun and he drew the line at using anything personal for material.

“I never sat down and wrote something with the intention of ‘I’m going to really give it to this guy’,” Moore said.

“It’s always done in the spirit of affection is the way to put it really.

“I’m sure at some point I’m going to do something that somebody’s not happy with, but they say it’s the highest form of flattery to be impersonated, so so far that’s been the reaction.”

Originally published as Comedian Conor Moore has mastered plenty of F1 impressions, but none tops Aussie favourite