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"Be different. Be mini."
—Slogan.
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 Moto GP (Mini Bikers) in 2010 and Formula E (Min-E Drivers) in the latter's inaugural season (2014-15).
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.
- 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. - 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.
- Butt-Monkey: Nick Heidfeld, Pastor Maldonado, Nelson Piquet Jr, to name a few.
- Design Student's Orgasm: Many of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Ferrari helmets come off as this in real life.
- Valentino Rossi's special helmets as well.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This.
- Easter Egg: Adaco placed a few literal ones in some of his 2018 chapters for the viewers to find.
- Evolving Credits: Every few seasons, but Adaco has come to a more stable format from 2015, with slight tweaks each season afterward.
- Eye Take: Shown as Black Bead Eyes.
- Gratuitous Italian: Especially races are in Italy.
- Helium Speech: Part and parcel of being Mini.
- National Stereotypes: Played with.
- Aussies like Mark Webber, Jack Miller, and Daniel Ricciardo often throw boomerangs or ride kangaroos to advance.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Red Boxing Gloves: A staple for the belligerent, "this fight isn't over" Minis, especially in the comics.
- The Smurfette Principle: Minigirl.
- 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.
- Played straighter in Formula E's first few races, with Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti making brief appearances in the series' first few chapters.
- The Stinger: A regular feature of the videos since 2017.
- Talking with Signs: In some chapters, up to three adjacent racers hold up a sign that sums up to one phrase.
- 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.
- Verbal Tic: Complaining about car trouble by mentioning the malfunctioning part of the car, or the brand that supplies it.
- 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
- 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.
- For Dani Pedrosa, Katanas Are Just Better.
- 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.
- Wheel of Decisions: Dark Mini spins a wheel of misfortune—sometimes targeting who gets it, sometimes targeting how (e.g. penalties or car troubles).
- Kimi Räikkönen: Bwoah.
