From fast lane to country lane: The Formula 1 stars who opt for rural living after hanging up their helmets
A handful of F1 drivers lean in to the penthouse lifestyle — but when you start digging into it, most seem to prefer bucolic bliss once they're away from the pit lane. Toby Keel takes a look.
A quick search for 'homes of Formula 1 stars' brings up a plethora of results — and almost all focus on glitz and glamour. Lewis Hamilton, unsurprisingly, is the focus of many pieces: the seven-times world champion apparently has homes in London, Geneva and Monaco, but is also said to have a penthouse in Manhattan that's worth between £30 million and £60 million, depending on whom you believe.
There are a few other drivers who live — or have lived — in similar style: current world champion Lando Norris is a neighbour of Hamilton's in Monaco, and the recently-retired Daniel Ricciardo has a movie star-style house in Los Angeles.
But read beyond those names, and a funny thing starts to happen: you'll notice that a huge number of F1 drivers seem to crave country life. Michael Schumacher, arguably the greatest driver ever to don a helmet, has long lived in a 15-acre estate on the shores of Lake Geneva, while four-time champion Sebastian Vettel lives in a Swiss farmhouse, and has been studying for a degree in agriculture.
Sebastian Vettel's interest in farming predates his retirement from F1: here he is in 2011 visiting a sheep farm during the week of the Australian Grand Prix.
British stars of the past are no different: Damon Hill apparently lives in a very nice house in the Surrey village of Chiddingfold, and when Nigel Mansell retired from F1 he bought a golf course in Devon, and built a house on the grounds.
Nigel Mansell bought Woodbury Park in Devon after retiring from racing.
Jody Scheckter, who won the F1 title with Ferrari in 1979, had an even grander country estate: Laverstoke, which came on to the market via Savills last year at £58 million, where Scheckter pioneered biodynamic farming on the 2,500-acre holding.
Laverstoke, 'one of southern England’s finest country estates', was owned by South African-born F1 racer Jody Scheckter.
The greats of the golden years of motor racing in the 1950s and 1960s Jim Clark was a sheep farmer before he got in to F1, while Jackie Steward spent most of his post-racing life on a rolling country estate in the Chilterns. True, Stirling Moss bucked the trend (he lived in a high-tech home in Mayfair, with a dining table 'that goes up into the kitchen where it can be laid for dinner and then descends into the dining room below'), but most seem happiest when going from life in the fast lane to life in the country lane.
The great John Surtees is unique in the history of motor racing: he is the only man ever to win the world championship on both two wheels and four wheels. Surtees won the Grand Prix motorcycle 500cc title (the equivalent of MotoGP today) four times between 1956 and 1960, and after switching to Formula 1 he was crowned champion in 1964. Not bad for a lad from a village in Surrey.
John Surtees in a Ferrari; he won the title for the Italian maker in 1964, the highlight of his successful 12-years stint in Formula 1.
The rewards for drivers were tiny back then compared to today's cohort, and after his racing career ended Surtees actually ran a motorcycle ship and a Honda car dealership in Kent. He may not have had a harbourside penthouse in Monaco, but he did well enough to have a fine country home in Kent — and that house is currently for sale through John D. Wood at £3.5 million.
John Surtees's former home in Kent.
It's very lovely indeed: a restored 16th-century farmhouse set in some 23 acres of idyllic formal gardens, paddocks and rolling fields bordered by oak woodland.
The present owners have actually been here for 23 years (they bought it after Surtees and his wife downsized) and they've maintained it impeccably and upgraded it sensitively.
The house offers 5,000 sq ft of well-proportioned accommodation on three floors, including, on the ground floor, a double-aspect drawing room, a formal dining room, a charming sitting room and a superb country-style kitchen.
The first and second floors contain eight bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms. The gardens and grounds create a magical backdrop to the house, with leisure facilities including a tennis court and swimming pool.
There's also another home of a great British Formula 1 driver of the past for sale at the moment too. Tony Brooks, a six-times Grand Prix winner, spent 35 years of his life living in an apartment within the grand country pile that is Ottershaw Park; and, following his death in 2022, the apartment is now for sale at £1.1 million through Savills.
Ottershaw Park is a magnificent building and the Baron Suite — owned by ex F1 racer Tony Brooks — is one of its best apartments.
There are three bedrooms, three bathrooms and three reception rooms in this generously-sized flat, which is called 'The Baron Suite'. It's one of the oldest and most characterful homes within this Grade II-listed building.
Ther's a drawing room, sitting room and a living room as well as a kitchen-diner, with the living space at one end of the flat and the three bedrooms at the other.
At the end of the hallway, and accessible from both the sitting room and living room, a 43ft balcony stretches the entire , giving views over the beautiful grounds.
Those grounds are communal, and part of living at Ottershaw Park — as are the heated indoor swimming pool, tennis courts, games room, extensive landscaped gardens, formal terraces and sweeping parkland.
John Surtees's former home is for sale through John D. Wood — see more details.
The Baron Suite at Ottershaw Park is for sale through Savills — see more details.
