Formula One: Trademarked Shoey? Ricciardo ponders a 'Helmety'

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Never mind the “Shoey”, stand by for the “Helmety”.

Red Bull Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo wondered jokingly on Thursday whether he might have to give up swigging podium champagne from a sweaty racing boot and glug it from his helmet instead.

The Australian was responding to recent reports that Formula One Licensing had registered a trade mark for the “Shoey” in more than 25 countries where relating to flasks, glasses, bottles, mugs, sculptures and figurines.

Details have been published on the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) website.

“I heard something about that,” Ricciardo told Reuters at the Spanish Grand Prix.

“To be honest I stayed off the internet for pretty much the whole time, but they trademarked the Shoey? I don’t know what that means.

“Can I still do it or are they going to fine me every time? I’ll take my helmet up there and do a “Helmety” or something. I’ll find out more about that. Hopefully they’re not trying to stitch me up,” he smiled.

It was not the first time that Ricciardo has threatened to give the Shoey the boot.

Last year he expressed a fear that the podium ritual, dreaded by rival drivers and celebrities but loved by his Formula One fans as well as anyone else not in drinking distance, was getting out of control.

Ricciardo said then, after an F1 Live event on the streets of London in July, that some fans were even shouting “Shoey” to him as he walked past them.

“I don’t actually just take my shoe off while I’m walking in the street and drink out of it. I feel like I dug a hole for myself with this one,” he said.

The Shoey is a particularly Australian ritual practised by surfers before it spread to other sports. MotoGP rider Jack Miller has also performed it on the podium.

In Ricciardo’s case, the gesture involves urging others to share the sweaty offering in front of a global television audience.