What do F1 team owners drive? Any connections to their investments?
Formula 1 teams spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on the development, production and operation of cars with a net cost of over tens of millions of dollars. With corresponding earnings in the hundreds of millions, Grand Prix racing is now the most successful and prestigious business, and teams are valued at amounts ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars for the most titled and successful ones.
Who owns them? Automobile factories, large petrochemical and consumer companies, investment funds, as well as a number of the richest billionaires.
But what kind of cars do they drive? Can their fleet be compared to F1 cars? Is there a connection to investments in racing and technology?
Ferrari: President and co-owner John Elkann
Probably the most important brand in the history of Formula 1, it has grown into a car manufacturer with one of the most valuable brands on the market and thousands of copies of the most luxurious cars with price tags ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Can shareholders and managers ride anything else?
In fact, theoretically yes - after all, through the Fiat conglomerate, they own many more brands from Jeep and Alfa Romeo to the no less luxurious Maserati.
However, the president of the brand and the family business manager of the foundation, John Elkann, chose the flagship brand and drives a bright orange Ferrari Purosangue!
It would seem like an unexpected choice - with a huge portfolio of all kinds of beautiful supercars? But it is significant and indicative: after all, it was with this model that the brand from Maranello tried to open the door to the segment of large luxury SUVs, which has been actively developing in recent years. Purosangue (named after a breed of horse) was the first brand in history to have four doors and seats - a model for the whole family!
But the main features have been preserved: carbon fiber in the chassis and body, active anti-roll suspension to maintain stable ground clearance, a 6.5-liter petrol V12 with a power of 725 hp. (combustion calibration based on F1 technologies), 8-speed automatic transmission, acceleration to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds and a top speed of 311 km/h, all-wheel drive, $400 thousand, limited edition in 3 thousand pieces per year, sales of issues 24 months in advance and the next slots for a reservation of half a million... Complete Ferrari classics.
Ferrari: Enzo Ferrari's son Piero
The illegitimate heir of the founder of the legendary brand retained a 10% stake in the company and a seat on the Board of Directors. And he also drives a Purosague - but in the green color of his father's legendary 400 Superamerica!
There is only one like this in the world. And she is priceless.
If Ferrari needed advertising, one could say that there could be no better advertising.
Mercedes: owner of 33% shares and boss Toto Wolff
The Austrian businessman became a multimillionaire long before his connection with the German brand thanks to investments in the stock market, investment companies and IT startups.
Toto became the boss of motorsport and on the radar of Mercedes in 2006, when he bought 49% of the HWA company. She was involved in tuning racing cars for Mercedes, developing engines such as equipment for F-3 and GT3, managing teams of the German concern in youth series and DTM. In 2007, he took the company public and sold 30% of the shares to Kuwaiti investors - he added hundreds of millions and gained an excellent reputation in the German industrial environment. That’s when he got on Daimler’s radar, received an invitation to Williams’ capital and a bunch of connections in the paddock. Since 2013, he has headed Mercedes in F1 for a small stake.
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However, before the rapprochement with the German automaker, Wolff succeeded in accumulating a fleet of expensive luxury Ferraris such as La Ferrari Aperta, F40 and Enzo - a couple of years ago, Toto cleared his garage of them, selling them for about $6 million along with a luxurious Mercedes SL 65 AMG Black Series (in the development of which I even took part!)
Now he only has Mercedes left in his garage - most often the Wolff couple shines on social networks in their personal classic 300 SL Gullwing worth $1.5 million! Only 1,858 of these were produced in the 60s, based on the racing W194, which won Le Mans in 1952 with a 240 hp engine. And in 1999, the German AMuS chose it as the “sports car of the century.”
The Wolffs also have the AMG GT R (the “regular” version of the safety car with a power of 600 hp and a price tag of 300 thousand dollars) and the “successor” of the Gullwing – the AMG SLS AMG (571 hp, 200 thousand dollars). And Toto has been seen in Mercedes C-Class, X-Class and GLC.
But his family has a daily car - a G63 Gelendvagen. Perhaps you need to look surprised?
Full corporate solidarity - although formally it is not part of the structure of the Toto plant.
Mercedes: boss of the owner of a 33% stake in INEOS Jim Ratcliffe
In addition to the German plant and Toto Wolff, since the end of 2020 the eight-time world champions have been owned by the British petrochemical giant INEOS. And his face and main shareholder (60% share) is the newly-minted owner of Manchester United, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. What does he drive?
Until the mid-2010s, the billionaire almost did not give public interviews, but with the launch of more and more new initiatives and businesses, he had to go to the press and
explain. This happened with the opening of the Ineos Automotive auto division and the announcement of the Grenadier SUV - a classic-looking Land Rover Defender all-terrain vehicle, an icon of the British automotive industry and style.
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Ratcliffe declared his love for the original Defender - and expressed his desire to keep its production, which closed in January 2016. After negotiations broke down, INEOS settled on its own Grenadier SUV - which Sir Jim drives himself. He even personally takes part in advertising - in the same salon with Lewis Hamilton, for example.
Ratcliffe, it seems, is not joking and actually drives them: according to his own stories and eyewitness accounts, at his villa in Courchevel, France, he also has a Grenadier and a similar G-Wagon from Mercedes.
By the way, the Grenadier’s engine is from BMW – the deal was concluded even before INEOS’s partnership with Mercedes. Power – from 245 hp. up to 300+ depending on the set, price – from ;80 thousand.
The co-owner of Mercedes in F1 brought Hamilton to advertise his SUV. And Lewis praised it, but inside there was a BMW engine!
Alpin: Ryan Reynolds as the face of an investment consortium with a 24% stake
Alpin may still sound unfamiliar to most F1 fans and casual viewers, but beneath the mysterious name and azure color lies the sports car sub-brand of good old French Renault - and it is largely owned by the Boulogne conglomerate. It, in turn, belongs 15% to the country, another 15% to the Nissan concern through the exchange of shares during the formation of the alliance, another 65% is traded on the stock exchange, the rest is owned by the management and working staff.
However, in June 2023, Alpin announced the sale of a 24% stake in the team, announced back in mid-2022 - for 200 million euros went to a group of investors, which includes Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, as well as Otro Capital and RedBird Capital .
Among the partners there are a lot of other stars like Andrei Rublev, Juan Mata, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Rory McIlroy and Anthony Joshua, but the main person in the deal was Reynolds - along with the headlines “investors from Hollywood!”
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So what does the star Canadian actor drive? Maybe he loves the French automobile industry, has already bought himself an Alpin car, or is a fan of Renault?
Reynolds has a very extensive vehicle fleet - and the most luxurious one in it is the Lamba Aventador S convertible - a 6.5-liter V12 engine with 730 hp, a price of $460 thousand, everything is as it should be.
Another diamond of the garage is the Audi R8 V10+ for $183 thousand with a V10 engine of 550 hp:
And, of course, a regular visitor to California simply could not remain without a fashionable Tesla. And Ryan has a $95,000 Model S and a $90,000 Model X.
Some of the retro cars are Mercedes 190 SL from the early 60s, now these are sold mainly at auctions for something like a hundred thousand dollars:
A little more Americanism: Cadillac Escalade 2014 for 83 thousand with 400 hp, Dodge Challenger R/T for 40 thousand...
And a couple more not pretentious, but purely family everyday cars: a Toyota Prius Prime for 30 thousand, an electric Nissan Leaf for 35 thousand and an old-school BMW E38 7 Series from the 90s.
Not a single Alpin.
Aston Martin: Lawrence Stroll
The British team with purely British branding has an interesting feature with its affiliation: formally, it is connected with the car plant exclusively by a 10-year licensing deal and a common owner. He is the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll - he first bought the team in 2018, began rebuilding it, and then, it seems, decided to use the marketing leverage of F1 to promote suitable businesses from among those underfunded and in distress - and bought part of the shares of the plant , spending up to $1.5 billion in personal finances on everything. In search of money to take over Aston Martin, Lawrence had to sell off part of the luxury fleet of grandiose Ferraris - the creations of the Maranello brand alone were supposed to bring in 220 million!
What is left in the garage of the newly-minted owner of the English Ferrari?
There are two cars from the Italian brand: first of all, the extremely unusual Monza SP2:
Retro design in the style of old F1 cars from the 50s (they even come with old leather overalls and special goggles!), but the main thing is the 6.5-liter V12 engine with 810 hp. and the title of one of the most powerful road-going Ferraris in the history of the brand. The circulation is limited to 499 copies, and they were sold exclusively on pre-orders for $1.8 million. The same went to Ibrahimovic and Verstappen.
The last Ferrari Stroll decided to keep was a rare 458 Speciale A convertible.
It has a 4.5-liter V8 engine with a power of 600 hp, and acceleration to 100 km/h is faster than three seconds. It is 50 kg lighter than the regular version, only 499 of them were built, and if at first they sold for $481 thousand, now they go under the hammer and in private transactions for at least a million.
Among the off-road racing cars, Stroll has a McLaren M8D in his collection (the legendary “Batmobile” for the American Can-Am sports car series of 1970, during which the main driver received fatal injuries
tel of the brand Bruce McLaren - 8 victories in 10 races), "McLaren" M22 for the open "Formula 5000" - amateur racing in the 70s on open-wheel cars, also one of the legendary "Ford" GT40, which won the "24 Hours of Les -Mana and the 1996 McLaren F1 GTR, which finished 5th at Le Mans.
On the road side, Lawrence was spotted driving a Porsche 959, an extremely rare spin-off of the rally model for the B rally class closed in 1993. Only 292 of them were produced, and at the time of its release it was the fastest production car with a speed of 317-339 km/h with a 450 hp engine!
Despite their rarity and background, these cost 300 thousand at auctions. Although they appear extremely rarely!
So far, only one Aston Martin has been spotted with him (naturally, not one of the ones he drove to official events, presentations and press statements) - the DB5 Convertible.
This is a legendary British convertible sports car, produced from '63 to '65 - and old-schoolers will definitely know it as one of James Bond's most famous cars.
It has a 282 hp engine, which accelerates the unit to 240 km/h. Only 123 of them were made, and especially after the worldwide success of the film, it was the convertible version that became a collector's dream. Cars from the film went under the hammer at prices ranging from $4 to 6.5 million, and rare auctions of “regular” ones start at $2 million.
Haas: Gene Haas
The American billionaire does not own automobile assets - the Haas company is engaged in the production of machine tools, tools and industrial equipment. Therefore, formally, Gene does not even have moral ties with any brand or brand - with the exception of the supplier of his Ferrari team, to which he extensively declared his love in a major interview immediately after the dismissal of long-term boss Gunther Steiner.
Jean is also extremely non-public and is rarely captured by cameras and cameras - especially given the restrictions on movement caused by the consequences of a criminal case for tax evasion.
However, one Redditor got the chance to look into Haas' garage in Kannapolis and find out what's in there. Three F1 cars, a Ford GT40 racing car from Le Mans...
And a personal car is still a Ferrari!
The model is 599 GTB Fiorano, the flagship for 2006 and selling for 300 thousand euros with a 6-liter V12 engine with 612 hp. Out of production in 2012.
Red Bull/RB: Mark Mateschitz
One of the newest billionaire team owners is the heir to his father's Red Bull empire, Dietrich Mateschitz. He received 49% of the company (the approximate estimate of his fortune is $21 billion) and the right to manage the sports branch at the end of October 2022 and immediately gave the structure to the former boss of the football part of the empire, Oliver Mintzlaff.
Mark himself was almost not present in the public sphere before the “promotion” and almost does not appear in the press after entering into inheritance. What he drives is not known for certain.
Red Bull/RB: Chalerm Juvidya
The Thai second half of the Red Bull conglomerate is even more non-public and is primarily responsible for the composition and production on site as the son and heir of partner Dietrich Mateschitz. The patriarch of the Thai clan is already 73 years old and has little time for publicity and cars, but his children get into scandals from time to time.
In the 2010s, his son and heir Vorayuth Yuvidya got involved in hit-and-run stories twice: once he hit a policeman in London while on duty in a gray Ferrari (without specifying the model), and the second time he hit a man in a black Porsche Carrera . Issued registration plates B055 RBR: Boss Red Bull Racing.
There are no public pictures of the Thai family's fleet, but in the 2010s, racing Red Bull worked with Renault, the Infiniti brand, then Aston Martin and Honda. There was no solidarity with the F1 team, although the empire itself acts and sponsors a dozen racing series and organizations with all kinds of equipment.
