
Formula 1 is an expensive and exciting sport with
fast cars, exotic locations, beautiful women (check out the
pit babes here) and lots of money flying around. The drivers can earn huge salaries - sometimes in the region of £10m a year! There is also
prize money to be won by the top 10 teams of the championship but these figures are not often disclosed. The teams need vast amounts of money in order to have the
best staff and the best
high-tech cars. So it's not at all surprising that the drivers live extravagant playboy lifestyles while we normal folk read about them jealously in
OK and
Hello Magazine.
Lewis Hamilton, last year's
F1 champion, is just an ordinary boy from Stevenage whose father held down three jobs to pay for his son's interest in
racing. Now, all that hard work has obviously paid off! Lewis owns a home in
Switzerland (as do many
F1 drivers to take advantage of the tax breaks - for him an estimated £4m+ a year!), he was also looking for a
London pied-à-terre to share with his glamorous
Pussycat Dolls lead singer girlfriend
Nicole Scherzinger. He recently bought a
90ft yacht worth £5m that has eight bedrooms including a master suite, a VIP suite and two guest cabins and a luxury lounge with
plasma TVs. The yacht is painted to match Hamilton's
McLaren racing car in silver and black and is kept in
Monaco.
Lewis isn't the only F1 driver taking advantage of Switzerland's tax breaks. In that country you will also find houses owned by such current and past legends as
Jean Alesi,
David Coulthard,
Fernando Alonso,
Alain Prost,
Jacques Villeneuve,
Jackie Stewart and
Michael Schumacher. In fact, Schumacher's palatial home is a 650 m²
mansion with its own underground garage and petrol station, and it's situated on a private beach on
Lake Geneva.
Don't assume that these fabulously rich drivers are tied down to one country. David Coulthard also owns houses in
London,
Belgium and another tax-haven,
Monaco. He also owns several
luxury hotels in the UK and in Monaco. Monaco has long been a popular home for F1 drivers, no doubt because of the
Grand Prix circuit that takes place in its streets. But surely aslo because of the
casino in
Monte Carlo, the first-class hotels and exciting nightlife and the leisure facilities for the rich and famous. In Monaco you will also find the houses of
Jenson Button (who also owns houses in the UK and
Bahrain),
Nico Rosberg,
Alex Wurz,
Giancarlo Fisichella and
Felipe Massa.
There are many more perks to being a rich and famous
racing driver. For example, Felipe Massa is good friends with the Swiss watchmaker
Richard Mille. Mille has dedicated several watches to the F1 driver and I'm fairly certain that he is given his own models to wear. Another brand of
expensive watch that likes to sponsor F1 drivers is
TAG Heuer. They have Lewis Hamilton,
Kimi Räikkönen,
Sébastien Bourdais and
Heikki Kovalainen as some of their 'brand ambassadors' who are sponsored by the company and get to wear their
stylish watches.
Apart from watches, F1 drivers are usually given a carmaker's
top performance model when they sign up to race under them. Imagine being given a top of the range
Ferrari, for free! Most top F1 drivers own fantastic
sports cars, or - like Fernando Alonso -
classic cars, and of course if asked they would all state unequivocally that the best perk of being a Formula 1 driver is driving all those super fast cars. Although, there are so many more attractions to the lifestyle than just driving such as
travelling the world and staying in
exotic locations.
The
Grand Prix circuit visits some of the world's most exciting places such as
Brazil,
Japan,
Italy,
Abu Dhabi and
Spain amongst others. Of course, all F1 drivers get to
fly first class while being served
gourmet meals,
champagne and other complimentary drinks. Some drivers, like
Rubens Barrichello, even own their own planes! His
Embraer Legacy means that he can travel quickly between his races and therefore have more time to spend with his family. Having your own plane would certainly cut down waiting time at the airport! Being so well-travelled, F1 drivers know all the best places to go for
luxurious holidays. They are really spoilt for choice:
first-class hotels, their own
boats (Giancarlo Fisichella's is moored in
Sardinia),
luxury cruises or even staying in one of their own many homes around the world.
To sample just a small slice of the good life, you could plan a trip to one of the
Grand Prix race venues.
Formula 1 tickets can cost between £50 - £470 depending on whether you want to see tests or races and where you sit. Should you want to see the races in foreign climes, you'll also need to book some
flights and
hotel accommodation, but it would so be worth it to be at the track, smell the burning rubber and petrol fumes and hear the engines revving and roaring. Then maybe bump into some of the drivers and discuss the best watch brands and whether flying first class or by private jet is preferable ... ok, maybe not.
Do you plan to see the Grand Prix in person? Who do you think will win this year's championship? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.
Top F1 lifestyle searches:
- Designer clothes
- Race cars
- Expensive watches
- Luxury cruises
- First class flights
- Champagne
- Yachts
- Autoblog
- Tax havens
- Grand Prix circuit