A fake F1 drivers’ bill from Nusr-Et in Dubai went viral during Sebastian Vettel’s farewell dinner recently, duping thousands of fans.
Sebastian Vettel is retiring from Formula One at the end of the 2022 season, which happens to be this weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The F1 driver made his debut in 2007 and currently drives for Aston Martin. Vettel won four titles with Red Bull between 2010-2013 before joining Ferrari in 2015. He stayed with the Scuderia until 2020, joining Aston Martin the following year
The German announced his plans to retire back in July, posting an official statement to his newly-created Instagram account.
Entire F1 field goes out to dinner ahead of Seb’s last race
All 20 drivers in the 2022 Formula 1 field gathered for dinner this week to celebrate Vettel’s career. The farewell dinner ahead of the final race of his career was reportedly initiated by Lewis Hamilton.
The dinner took place before the first day of practice at Yas Marina Circuit, and images of the whole grid together quickly circulated on social media.
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Fake F1 drivers’ bill goes viral during Sebastian Vettel’s farewell dinner
Amid the farewell meal a bill, purporting to be from the F1 drivers’ dinner, went viral. The viral post, which has over 50k likes shows the drivers sat around a table in one image, followed by their dinner bill in the other.
The bill was from Nusr-Et in Dubai, considered by many to be the best steakhouse in Dubai, and famously owned by Turkish chef Salt Bae.
The alleged bill was particularly striking as it came to 615,065 AED (UAE Dirham), which is roughly £140,000 or $166,825. The most notable item included five bottles of Petrus wine, coming to 325,000 AED (£74,249):
Many believed the bill to be authentic, with fans commenting on the tremendous amount of money that was spent.
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However, while the bill itself isn’t fake, it doesn’t belong to the F1 drivers like originally suggested. The person who posted the viral tweet later added:
‘For legal reason my lawyer has asked me to clarify that this is a joke lol’
‘Salt Bae posted this receipt from his Abu Dhabi restaurant on his IG literally minutes ago, I don’t even know what restaurant the F1 drivers are at BUT it could be there receipt?’
As other fans pointed out, the F1 drivers weren’t even at Nusr-Et, they were at the Michelin-starred Hakkasan instead.
While Lewis Hamilton also picked up the actual tab:
F1 drivers celebrate fun night together
Various pictures of the evening were shared by the drivers on their social media accounts.
George Russell posted on Twitter “Great evening with the rest of the guys celebrating Seb’s last race. Cheers!”
Here’s what some of the other drivers posted: