Unreleased George Harrison song pokes fun at F1 legend reveals David Coulthard

You may be familiar with George Harrison’s F1 tribute Faster, but the world has been deprived of another secret motorsport song written by the rock legend.

In the 1970s and 80s, the musician known as the ‘quiet Beatle’ frequently attended motorsport events, where he hung out with F1’s most legendary names. This has since been immortalised in a series of effortlessly cool images that today’s celebrities would struggle to re-create, and you get the sense Harrison did not want to be the centre of attention when he attended F1 races.

Harrison was so enamoured with the world of F1, he even released a song about the sport in 1979 titled Faster, with three-time world champion and friend Jackie Stewart’s book inspiring the song.

Much has been said about Harrison's musical talent, but a recent anecdote has revealed that he could at times dabble with satire, penning a song that poked fun at former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Speaking to MotorSport Magazine, ex-McLaren driver David Coulthard recalled one of those bizarrely brilliant moments only an F1 driver can have. Eating dinner with George Harrison in a casino, when he suddenly launches into a song about your boss.

“Musicians always came around F1, and a surreal rock star moment was when George Harrison was still alive,” Coulthard explained.

“We went to a dinner in Melbourne with Norbert Haug, and George was there.

“In this small restaurant, at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, he played us a song he’d written called ‘Bernie Says’ – it’s never been published.”

Ecclestone famously transformed F1 into one of the biggest sports in the world, but at the same time was criticised for the tight control he had over the sport - an element reflected in Harrison’s unreleased song.

“The chorus line was basically: ‘Bernie says, do this, Bernie says…’ it was just showing that Bernie was the dictator of F1, that everything that happened would be because Bernie had decided,” Coulthard continued.

“But it was done in a musical, quirky, Beatles, George Harrison way, which was kind of a moment! [You think] wow, this is pretty special!”

George Harrison’s F1 love affair

Harrison’s love affair with F1 was catalysed at Aintree in 1955, where he witnessed the likes of Stirling Moss race and win in his Mercedes-Benz during the sport's first championship year

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and Harrison was a frequent celebrity in the racing world, striking up lifelong friendships with the likes of Stewart.

In fact, Harrison even stayed with Stewart in 1999, after an intruder broke into his own home. Stewart reflected on this memory and the man himself in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, where he said: "George was a very sensitive man, a very elegant man."

“I mean, he was the biggest star to take interest in me because he was a Beatle. He was like God in these days.”

“Motorsport was his biggest escape. When he went to the Grand Prix with so many superstars, a Beatle could actually get around without being mobbed all the time.

“Every now and again, somebody would say, ‘Boy, that guy looks like George Harrison.’ But that was all. He loved that. He was a very, very modest man.”

Stewart even did his best impression of Martin Brundle back in 1979, when he managed to get one half of the Beatles back together on the grid at the Monaco Grand Prix and interviewed Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Starr was not as infatuated with F1 as his former bandmate, and claimed he was only at the grand prix because he 'lived in Monaco'; but nonetheless the clip on the grid makes for an interesting watch.

Stewart was not the only F1 star familiar with Harrison, and the former Beatle struck up a bond with 1996 world champion Damon Hill that could be lifechanging for the British driver.

In an account of Harrison’s life in, Living in the Material World, Hill revealed that the musician helped fund his early motorsport career having known his parents Graham and Bette Hill.

“I was in my early twenties and desperate to become a racing driver, and I knew that George liked motor racing, so I wrote to him to see if he could help. And he was interested," Hill explained.

“‘Look, I want to help,’ he said, ‘because I really liked your dad.’ So from that point onwards I had a Beatle sponsor in the background.

“I really was shocked that he actually said that he would help. But he helped lots of people in different ways that you never get to hear about, so I didn’t like to talk about it. I felt really grateful to George for helping me out at a time when I really needed a leg up.”

Harrison and Hill were frequently pictured together in the 1990s, and the musician remained a great supporter of the champion. He even appeared on an episode of This Is Your Life celebrating Hill, not only highlighting their close bond but also making an appearance in the F1 world without any kind of pretension.

Which summarises Harrison's entire relationship with motorsport. In modern F1, where clueless celebrities wander up-and-down the grid in hope of a viral moment, Harrison's relationship with F1 and their stars reminds us that when you strip back the flashy layers of the sport, you can uncover something much more special.

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