F1’s billionaire boys club: Extravagant lives of three young F1 drivers with mega rich dads

It is a well-known undeniable fact that motorsport is mostly a wealthy particular person’s sport.

An excellent karting profession, simply to set you in your manner, can price upwards of £100,000-a-year.

Lewis Hamilton’s dad took on three jobs to have the ability to fund his son’s profession – and he duly received the rewards together with his success in recent times.

However making it to the head of motorsport with F1 has, fairly merely, been simpler for some somewhat than others.

Subsequent season, there will likely be three sons of billionaire fathers on the grid. However who’re they? Daily Star Sport has the lowdown…

Lance Stroll

Point out the phrase ‘daddy’s boy’ within the F1 paddock and just one man will come to thoughts: Lance Stroll.

That stated, the 2020 season maybe proves that he’s extra than simply one other pay driver stealing a seat from a gifted teenager. Though he completed eleventh within the standings, it did include two podiums and a pole place. which is not too shabby for a mid-pack group. 

And the excellent news for Stroll is that with Nikita Mazepin coming into the competitors subsequent 12 months (extra on him later), he is most likely not essentially the most hated driver on the grid anymore.

Stroll’s father is Lawrence Stroll, a Canadian with a love of quick automobiles and racing. However most significantly, with a financial institution stability reported to be round £2billion.

In consequence, after profitable the European F3 collection, Stroll leapfrogged straight previous F2 or the GP3 collection to hitch the Williams group in F1 for the 2017 season. By 2019, Stroll Snr led the consortium which took over Power India and turned them into Racing Level… so guess who was introduced in to drive for them? You already know it. At the least he has a couple of outcomes to again the choice.

Away from the observe, Stroll has the liberty to benefit from the issues he loves most in life.

He likes to disconnect from driving by mountain biking, snowboarding, browsing and enjoying golf. He is additionally an NFL fan and spends free time watching the New York Giants.

The burden of being a well-known face does hit him too, and insists that the dearth of privateness is the toughest factor about being on the very high of sport.

The privateness challenge might be why he retains plenty of his personal life off social media now – and there’s no clear indication whether or not he’s presently relationship, although has been pictured beforehand with TV presenter and socialite Kimberley Garner.

Nicholas Latifi

A comparatively quiet and unassuming character, Latifi heads into his second 12 months on the F1 grid subsequent 12 months.

He completed this 12 months backside of the standings for full-time drivers, with out a level and was out-qualified by his Williams team-mate George Russell in each single qualifying session.

However there is no shock that he has retained his drive, given his father, Michael, is the multi-billionaire businessman who equipped a mortgage to the group with a purpose to hold them operating amid the discount in income via coronavirus and back-to-back Tenth-placed constructors’ finishes.

Michael has made his cash in Canada via Sofina Meals, the corporate which can be the first sponsor of the Williams group.

Nonetheless, Latifi’s spectacular performances within the F2 championship show he does have some credentials on high of simply his father’s cash.

In contrast to the opposite billionaire drivers, Latifi’s exploits away from the observe will not be significantly nicely documented.

He largely retains his off-track actions off social media and has not taken half in lots of interviews in any respect about his life-style or childhood.

What we do know is that Lafiti enjoys lively summer season breaks and is usually paddleboarding on a few of Canada’s most gorgeous lakes.

However aside from that, Latifi seems to be merely holding his head down and guaranteeing that he’s identified for his racing profession and never his household’s wealth.

Nikita Mazepin

Just like the others, Mazepin’s arrival into F1 subsequent season comes on the again of huge sponsorship promised by his billionaire father.

Russian star Mazepin will race alongside Mick Schumacher for the Haas group in 2021, with the duo changing standard pair Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

His father, Dimitry, based a chemical firm in 2007 and is price over £5billion, and has met Vladimir Putin together with his son by his aspect.

However Mazepin involves F1 with extra than simply cash – he brings loads of controversy with it too.

The 21-year-old was as soon as banned for a race after punching British F2 star Callum Ilott, leaving him with a black eye and a swollen jaw.

There was additional drama after his F1 deal was introduced, as Haas was pressured to launch a press release condemning his “abhorrent” actions that have been filmed behind a taxi.

Mazepin uploaded a video on his social media whereas in Bahrain, the place he appeared to grope a lady. The video was swiftly deleted.

Nonetheless, additional drama was created final week when Mazepin deleted his personal apology, which did not even point out the girl in query, from his social media accounts.

In consequence, the #SayNoToMazepin hashtag has frequently appeared on social media, as followers backlash over his introduction into the game. 

Over 40,000 followers have additionally signed a petition to get Haas to drop him.

However with a rumoured $20million funding into the American group for every of the following two years from his father, it’s extremely unlikely that Mazepin is eliminated.

And simply earlier than Christmas, Haas confirmed that Mazepin was nonetheless set to be driving for them subsequent 12 months.

Haas made the choice to rent him within the hope that it may discover the right stability of finance and expertise that will make them extra aggressive, after struggling within the again finish of 2020. That is regardless of Mazepin’s lack of serious success in any feeder collection.

He’s more likely to be all-action on the observe too, having been concerned in a raft of incidents within the F2 championship – together with being judged “wholly at fault” for the Sochi crash in 2019 which hospitalised each himself and Nobuharu Matusushita.

Mazepin does simply see purple, which may make the 2021 F1 season fascinating, if not profitable for the Haas group.