Web Animation / MiniDrivers

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MiniDrivers is a web series created in 2008 by Spanish animator and nurse Antonio "Adaco" Cañas to review, initially, Formula One races. He has expanded the series to include MotoGP (Mini Bikers) in 2010 and Formula E (Min-E Drivers) in the latter's inaugural season (2014-15). Min-E Drivers was discontinued in 2022, however.

In November 2024, the series was discontinued abruptly by Adaco due to family reasons (he had a daughter in 2023) and to focus on his job as a nurse, meaning there wasn't a season finale episode. and then in December he announced that he was coming back.

This series provides examples of:

• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Inevitable because of Adaco's accent.
• Amusing Injuries: Abundant. Most frequently Pain-Powered Leap, Squashed Flat, and Anvil on Head.
• Apocalypse How: The Mini-Verse collapsing at the end of Mini Vintage is at least a Class X, and could go up as high as a Class X-6 if the afterlife was destroyed.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez. Even after his retirement, Rossi seeks to sabotage Marc's races, Dark Mini-style.
  • Recent episodes have set up Max Verstappen and George Russell as this.
• Art Evolution: It took 2 years to make it actually mini◊. In addition, it took until 2014 for the art to evolve into current Mini style. Adaco has also hinted at a slight redesign in 2026, coinciding with the new Formula One regulations.
• Back for the Dead: Jules Bianchi. He was Put on a Bus after his crash in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, but sadly passed away on July 17, 2015. A tribute video to him was made in his honor two days later, meaning he was brought back into the show only to vanish into the afterlife at the end of the video.
• Banana Peel: A common way to see drivers and riders lose positions or crash out of races.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do NOT tell Felipe Massa you're faster than him. Just. Don't.
  • Do not harm or insult Fernando Alonso in front of Mini Bob. Not even Dark Mini is safe from his wrath when that happens.
• The Bus Came Back: Any driver who leaves F1 and returns later on^note Examples include Fernando Alonso, Robert Kubica, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Räikkönen and others trigger this. However, they may be Put on a Bus again later.
• Bus Crash: Happened to every driver who had retired or left F1 in Mini Vintage when the "Mini-Verse" collapsed.
• Butt-Monkey: Nick Heidfeld, Pastor Maldonado, Nelson Piquet Jr, Nikita Mazepin, Jack Doohan to name a few.
  • Among the MiniBikers, Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo fill this role.
• Design Student's Orgasm: Many of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Ferrari helmets come off as this in real life, as do Valentino Rossi's special helmets.
• Downer Ending: This happened for Mini Vintage, as in the final episode, Doc Brown fails to stop the modern and classic 2009s Jenson Button from meeting each other, causing a black hole to destroy the Mini-Verse at the end of the episode.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The very first episode had the MiniDriver as a superhero for whatever reason.
  • Until 2010, the drivers weren't all that "mini", being much taller.
• Easter Egg: Adaco placed a few literal ones in some of his 2018 chapters for the viewers to find.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: The Mini Vintage series ended this way when a black hole consumed the Earth, the Moon, and, according to Adaco, the "Mini-Verse". If that killed the afterlife too, well...
• Evolving Credits: Every few seasons, but Adaco has come to a more stable format from 2015, with slight tweaks each season afterward.
• Fictional Video Game: The Mini for Speed series is shown as a video game in-universe, with the Minidriver purchasing the first installment in 2010 onscreen, and he also plays the 2nd game in 2012. In 2020, Dark Mini is shown to have been the one playing Mini for Speed 5, and is about to consider buying the 2021 season Downloadable Content for that game, only to be interrupted by Mr. E.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Max Verstappen gets pissed easily, to the point of foaming at his mouth when it happens. Usually happens when Red Bull screws up his strategy...or if George Russell is involved.
• Helium Speech: Part and parcel of being Mini.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: In October 2025, all of the Formula 1 teams and drivers had to have their names changed and sponsors removed on the orders of the Formula One Management. The result is a series of Punny Names of the teams and the drivers being changed to "Mini (real name)". Averted for MiniBikers, which is unaffected by the change, and existing episodes were unchanged, with the change coming into effect at the 2025 United States Grand Prix. Max Verstappen actually lampshades the removal of team names in the "S-Race" there.
  Mini Max: "''What the...where are my sponsors? Where is my Red B...
  Jump Scare from Mini in Red
  Mini in Red: "Hey! Sponsors are not allowed...forget that."
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: Deconstructed by the series finale of MiniVintage. The 2020 design of 2009 Jenson Button meets his original design from 2009, but after wondering How Is That Even Possible?, a black hole abruptly forms between the two, consuming the entire Mini-Verse.
• National Stereotypes: Played with.
  • Aussies like Mark Webber, Jack Miller, and Daniel Ricciardo often throw boomerangs or ride kangaroos to advance. Subverted with Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan.
  • Baguettes sometimes appear as weapons for French drivers or when the race is in France.
  • Mexican drivers like Sergio Pérez holler "Andale!" a few times per season. Not to mention they love to spice things up.
  • Races at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX invoke cowboy tropes every now and then.
  • The tradition of having Tsurime Eyes in racers that came from Asia. Subverted with Alex Albon, who is Thai but isn't given Tsurime Eyes, perhaps as a nod to him being born in Britain.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Exaggerated by the final episode of MiniVintage, where after Jenson Button meets his classic self from the beginning of the series, a black hole forms between the two, consuming the entire Mini-Verse, despite Doc Brown's best efforts to defy the trope, he arrives seconds too late.
• No Body Left Behind: Whenever a driver passes away onscreen, such as with Jules Bianchi, Ayrton Senna and Nicky Hayden, they glow white and fade away, with no signs of their impending death beforehand.
• Only Six Faces: You'd have to rely on helmet art to know which character is which, but sometimes features like facial hair, distinct noses and/or facial features, or even crow's feet (for drivers 35 and older) make a Mini easy to identify. Some Minis may also have their distinct hairstyle overlapping their helmet, as seen with Marco Bezzecchi's poofy hair.
• Pass the Popcorn: Characters near an ensuing or imminent fight often get themselves a bag.
• Power Glows: Formula E drivers that uses Attack Mode will be represented by having their cars surrounded by a cyan glow.
• Punny Name: With the revamp in October 2025, all teams and sponsors were renamed to a combination of their real name and "Mini", such as "Oramini" or "Mc Mini".
• Put on a Bus: Naturally happens to any driver who leaves the sport for any reason. Doubles as a Long Bus Trip if it happens early on. Drivers may come back for cameos, in Mini Vintage (though based on the latter's "Everybody Dies" Ending, it might be an alternate universe), as Dark Mini or return to F1 later on.
• Red Boxing Gloves: A staple for the belligerent, "this fight isn't over" Minis, especially in the comics.
• Running Gag:
  • Starting in 2025, every time the drivers swear, it cuts away to a shot of money being put in The Swear Jar, as a parody on the FIA's crackdown on foul language.
  • Remarkable wins, podiums, or points-earning positions are accompanied by the Hallelujah chorus.
• The Smurfette Principle: Minigirl is the only female character that is an actual Mini, as there have been no female drivers in F1 for a long time.
  • Played straighter in Formula E's first few races, with Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti making brief appearances in the series' first few chapters.
    • And then there's Simona de Silvestro, who became the first woman to compete an entire season (and earn points) in Formula E.
• The Stinger: A regular feature of the videos since 2017.
  • Starting 2025, each Grand Prix video's stinger features the "It's Lights Out" segment, which highlights the best driver/rider/team (green light), a driver/rider/team who did well but was held back by a certain issue (yellow light), and the most disappointing driver/rider/team/track (red light, combined with the "Fail of the Day" award).
• The Swear Jar: Starting 2025, every instance where a driver swears cuts away to a swear jar with money being placed in it.
• Talking with Signs: In some chapters, up to three adjacent racers hold up a sign that sums up to one phrase.
• Total Party Kill: Thanks to Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean being at the front of the grid at the beginning of Mini For Speed 2, a crash between them blasted all of the drivers out of the city that the first race took place in, as did the Minidriver and Minigirl.^note 26 total characters are launched out of the city, most likely 24 drivers and these two. They were all back in the next scene though, because it was a Fictional Video Game.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Oliver Bearman loves honey, due to his name including "bear"
• Translation Convention: The first few years saw Adaco dubbing his videos mainly in Spanish. Nowadays, he's dubbing in English, too.
• Tsurime Eyes: How Adaco distinguishes Asian racers. It's simply the default white ellipses slanted in a slight V. Subverted with the Thai Alex Albon.
• Unexplained Recovery: In Mini for Speed 2, after Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado cause a Total Party Kill, all the drivers are back in time for the next race with no explanation given. Somewhat justified in that it's a Fictional Video Game, but the first race is skipped completely for whatever reason.
• Verbal Tic: Complaining about car trouble by mentioning the malfunctioning part of the car, or the brand that supplies it (with Pirelli being the most frequently mentioned brand)
• Vocal Evolution: Started with raspy squeaks, and Adaco just using his own falsetto in the first season, to the series' signature pitch-adjusted Helium Speech not long after.
  • In 2016-2017, Adaco was experimenting with pitch and through votes from his fans on Twitter, has made voices for certain characters like Dark Mini and Kimi Räikkönen more distinct.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • The aptly named Freeze-o-Kimi for the Iceman, who uses this often. Fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas gets his own, too.
  • Sebastian Vettel had a bazooka that shoots helmets at his enemies, but he seldom used them in his last few years.
  • Trophies for Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi.
    • More often, Rossi uses injections and chickens against his rivals. ^note The former due to his nickname "The Doctor", the latter from his 9th title win when he and his crew wore shirts saying gallina vecchia fa buon brodo ("an old hen makes good soup").
  • Scissors (and big ones to boot!) used to be Marco Simoncelli's worst fear but in his last season it became his weapon of choice.
  • AK-47 and grenades for Nicky Hayden.
  • Shotgun for Jenson Button.
  • Dani Pedrosa prefers Katanas.
  • Formula E's Fan Boost is shown as different weapons but has become a bit of this to Sébastien Buemi, who uses a Fan Boom bazooka most often.
  • Pierre Gasly is often seen using Pokémon-related attacks, thanks to his surname sounding similar to Gastly.
  • Nico Hulkenberg transforms into The Incredible Hulk.
  • Oliver Bearman has his "Bear Hug", where he claws the driver ahead of him before overtaking him.
• Wheel of Decisions: Dark Mini spins a wheel of misfortune—sometimes targeting who gets it, sometimes targeting how (e.g. penalties or car troubles).
• You Are Too Late: At the end of the final episode of MiniVintage, Doc Brown appears to attempt to stop modern and classic Jenson Button from meeting, only to arrive too late, causing him to lampshade the trope before a black hole appears and destroys everything.
  Emmet Brown: "Great Scott! I came too late..."

Kimi Räikkönen: Bwoah.