Do you have to be a millionaire to become an F1 driver?

Spor dünyasında son dakika haberi: Do you have to be a millionaire to become an F1 driver? Image source, Image caption, Lance Stroll's F1 career has been financed by his billionaire father Lawrence, who owns the Aston Martin team. Lewis Hamilton's father Anthony worked multiple jobs to fund his son's early career By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent Published 15 minutes ago 6 Comments Motor racing is expensive.

But just how much money does someone need if they want to make it as a Formula 1 driver? A glance at the current grid provides a contradictory picture. At one extreme is Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll, whose father Lawrence is a billionaire businessman who not only funded his son all the way to F1, but bought him a team in which to race.

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World champion Lando Norris graduated through the ranks funded by the millions his father Adam made as a pensions trader, which made him one of the richest men in Britain. But two-time world champion Fernando Alonso comes from a humble background. His father was an explosives engineer for a mining company in a little-known part of northern Spain, his mother worked in a department store.

Likewise seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, whose father Anthony famously worked as many as four jobs at a time to fund his son's early career before he was picked up by McLaren aged 11. Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc's family had run out of money to pursue his career by the time he was 13, before he was picked up by driver manager Nicolas Todt, who helped secure him a place in the Ferrari driver academy. But Alonso and Hamilton are both over 40.

What about people trying to make it now? Do they have to be millionaires? "Unfortunately, today, I think so, yeah," says Mercedes driver George Russell, who grew up in Norfolk, where his father had a business selling seeds.

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"My father spent everything we had on my career. He sold his business, and the total sum he invested was about £1m over 12 years, which is a huge amount of money. "If I started karting today, I don't think I'd be able to get there.

Karting is so expensive. There's kids in karting who are spending the same money as Mercedes spent for me to race in GP3. "There's a number of drivers on the grid today, top drivers, I don't think they'd be able to get to F1 if they started today.

" Even Russell, 28, was an exception. His family funded his career until he made it to GP3 - two steps below F1. Then, aged 16, he was picked up by Mercedes, who fully funded his seasons there and in Formula 2.

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