In the Formula 1 there are 20 of the best drivers in the world. They are professionals and make millions of dollars a year. With half the weekends of the year taken up by testing and racing, the time off between practice allows them to develop various hobbies, some more related to motorsports, such as simulators, and others totally unrelated.
Perhaps the hobby in which the majority agree is in Golf, something widely practiced by professional athletes and which is no stranger to F1 drivers. Not surprisingly, impromptu meetings arise between them Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Checo Pérez or Charles Leclercjust to name a few.
There are also the more extravagant hobbies like Norris’ DJ sets or those that involve cash injections, like Max Verstappen’s private jet, Pierre Gasly’s casino bets or Mexican Pérez’s stock market investments. And, of course, those more mundane hobbies, like photography and the piano.
Max Verstappen: A Private Jet Racing Simulator?
“He had his private plane converted to be able to simrac in the air. All right. Max needs that distraction. At least it didn’t affect his two world titles.”. The sentence of Helmut Marko, director of Red Bull, to Sport1 went around the world and caused surprise. While Max Verstappen’s passion for sim racing is well known, it was too outlandish to think that he would fit a simulator on his jet.
“I’m building a new motorhome to tour Europe up to the Formula 1 Grand Prix and I told him I would install a simulator there to continue driving when I come back at night, because I like it. In a way it’s my hobby, and also be careful. I think he misunderstood me, and said it was a plane, so I won’t be installing one on my plane, I think that would be a bit absurd“, clarified the Dutchman.
For years, the two-time F1 champion has been competing online from his home in Monaco. In fact, he competes regularly with the Redline team and made headlines this year because dropped out of the Le Mans Virtual Series having connection problems when leading the race.
“You try to win this race, which you’ve been preparing for for two months, and that’s how they handle it. Honestly it’s a joke. You can’t even call it an ‘event’. It’s a clown show. Better to pick up the car, because driving in 15th position for six hours doesn’t make sense,” criticized the organizers after several connection problems affecting several competitors.
DJ Lando Norris
He is one of the youngsters with the most future in Formula 1, where he arrived at just 19 years and 124 days old. But Lando Norris is more than McLaren’s star driver. The Briton has been able to make his life fun on and off the track, where he enjoys his free time by indulging in various hobbies such as golf, photography and music. And it stands out in everything.
The first of his hobbies met him when he was a partner of Carlos Sainz, now at Ferrari. “I’m not going to lie. I saw golf on TV and thought: This is the most boring thing I’ve ever seen”he confessed last year in Golf Digest magazine.
“Now I am completely addicted. I see him every weekend. I’m looking at the scores. I’m watching live streams. The golf bug got me a lot, it’s a lot of fun”, remarked who before the Italian GP in Monza competed in a pro-am tournament, the BMW PGA Championship, which was attended by professional golfers and amateur celebrities.
Music is another of his passions. In her social networks, she showed off her DJ turntables during her private plane trips, but it wasn’t until Verstappen’s birthday party when it could be publicly seen in action. That day, on the eve of the Singapore GP, Lando had fun playing and caused the Dutchman’s guests to go crazy.
His most recent hobby is photography. That’s it Norris created a parallel user on Instagram (@lando.jpg) entirely dedicated to the snapshots he takes during his travels; in many, obviously, the F1 drivers appear.
From Gasly’s bets to Checo’s fanaticism for the Stock Exchange
Everyone chooses how to spend their money. Although they all invest part of their income, there are other drivers who allocate part of it to some vices such as betting. Pierre Gasly confessed it in 2018, when he was still a Red Bull driver. Although he is careful with money due to his humble origins, the Frenchman enjoys playing roulette from time to time. “It gives me a thrill that I don’t find in anything else than driving a race car”he confessed.
On the same website, but a few years later, Checo Pérez also referred to his hobbies and said that the first app he looks on his mobile in the morning is CNBC to see how his investments are doing. “I like to follow the stock market. During the day there are many emotions. One day is very good and one day is very bad. It’s like in the races, it doesn’t matter what you do, but how you finish. I think it’s a good investment,” she explained.
It is not the Mexican’s only passion away from motorsport. The other, and perhaps the strongest, is golf. “My first experience was when a friend took me to a golf course shortly after I bought my first clubs. During the season I can’t play much, maybe 10 times, but in the winter I train about twice a week. I enjoy it a lot,” revealed who He doesn’t rule out becoming a pro in the future “because it’s a sport where you can become a pro when you grow up.”
The magic of Fernando Alonso
The two-time Spanish champion has earned his nickname “Magical Alonso” for his role as a wizard. During his long career, his tricks have become famous in the paddock.
in the podcast Beyond the gridof which he participated in 2021, he acknowledged: “I usually learn from the books I have at home. Sometimes you need friends or some wizards. They teach you something or they give you the latest book that came out or a CD or a USB stick or whatever and they teach you some things in a different way.”
“I don’t know why, that project is on hold,” he said. Although he hasn’t practiced them for years, the magician Alonso remains stainless and some time ago he dared to share a trick of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on social networks.
Musician Charles Leclerc and the effects of chess in F1
As well as being one of today’s best drivers, and who battled Verstappen for the start of the 2022 championship, the Monegasque Leclerc shines with the piano, a passion he kept hidden until the pandemic and which he has published on the YouTube channel where he has 552,000 subscribers.
“When we were kids we had a piano and my little brother would spend hours playing it. But I didn’t have time to learn, even though I enjoyed listening to it. And in solitary confinement, with little to do, I spent a lot of time on the simulator and then when I had some free time, I spent it on the piano. And I love it and I enjoy it, that’s when I get away from racing,” he confessed that he taught himself to play the piano.
Likewise, Leclerc practices golf and chess, hobbies he shares with his partner Carlos Sainz. The latter activity is also exercised by Lewis Hamilton.
Although the Englishman tends to lean towards extreme sports such as parachuting, in 2017 he explained in this regard that “in chess, as in Formula 1, you have to play diligently and be sensitive in every movement to make the best decisions at the right moment and in the right places.
Source: Clarin
Jason Root is the go-to source for sports coverage at News Rebeat. With a passion for athletics and an in-depth knowledge of the latest sports trends, Jason provides comprehensive and engaging analysis of the world of sports.