Not watched this yet but I'm guessing lance strolls story of a young boy with a financially struggling family coming up through the ranks to eventually be one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport is going to be really inspiring.
Magnussen is hard to judge. He actually grew up with his mum while Jan was racing, and they had him when they were both teenagers. He grew up in council housing, and moved around often, and was definitely not well off by any stretch of the imagination. In his book, he says it was tough for him mum because she struggled to afford simple pleasures like cheese, while Jan could afford to buy Kevin like the new PlayStation and stuff like that once he started becoming successful. Jan's prime was actually while Kevin was already a teenager and professional racing driver himself. But Jan himself did not become rich before the 00s, and he was straight up poor until he made it to a seat in F1. Kevin has said that for the first 4 years of his life, he barely talked to his dad because Jan lived in England at the time because of his career, and none of them could afford international phone calls. So Kevin really is a tale of two worlds.
It's also interesting how Kevin is a welder and actually worked as one for a while (or at least so the story goes). I wonder if he actually picked it up so he could have something to fall back on in case racing didn't turn out the way it did.
@@annadelsiena It was meant as a job he could fall back on, but he disliked working there. He loved the people who he worked with, but he disliked the work.
@@LeonardoAldana43 my brother in christ, everyone in spain has a fuck ton of surnames, thats just how it works. he just happened to make a funny skit out of it for the ferrari youtube chnnel
I raced go karts at the same time George was racing and actually raced against him a few times in my first year. The "caravan" in question was a circa £300k motorhome big enough to store his kart and all the equipment in. I have enormous respect for George because he was and is an extremely talented driver but his dad sure wasn't short on cash!
This is also why these lists are pointless if you don’t look into the extended family as most of these parents gained most of their wealth from their parents and families
4:57 my name is Forbes and normally hearing it in reference to the magazine doesn't phase me. But I was watching this in the background and I suddenly heard "Forbes take note!" and you immediately had my undivided attention.
Maybe I can fill in some of the gaps for Yuki. His dad Nobuaki worked in an insurance-related field and his mom Minako was a lab tech affiliated with a university. His family weren't struggling, you can tell by how Yuki attended an English kindergarten which is typically quite expensive in Japan. But it should be noted he didn't grow up in an expensive place like Tokyo, more of a normal city and he went to public schools. He's also mentioned recently in Taiwan that his karting put a financial strain on his family and his small size helped somewhat because his family didn't have to buy new equipment for him as often. If Honda had not selected him for the Honda Formula Dream Project, he likely would have only had a racing career in Japan or had to quit.
Thank you for this! I struggled finding anything about Yuki but I admit I could have spent longer researching this. Interesting that his dad was only a part time driver but that makes sense as most Motorsport (or even most sport) doesn't pay anywhere near enough to live on
@@MrVsGarage I think the lack of English language sources is tricky, you kind have to wade into fan forums to find stuff. Like even with Pierre, he mentioned in the biography written about him that both his parents had to work to afford his karting and he once came home to their belongings being repo'd because they were behind on payments. The private school he attended was funded by the French karting federation to help talented young racers that were missing out on classes. Anthoine Hubert and Esteban also attended it
I can read Japanese so I looked his fam up on Japanese websites and it basically says that his family ain't poor, at least in the eye of the Japanese public. It's correct that his dad is an insurance executive that owns his own shop in Tokyo. He makes anywhere from 200,000 USD to over 650,000 USD a year. His mom was also a lab tech at a university until 2021. His dad was a racer (in something called "jimukaana" in which you race solo around the track and try for the fastest time) in his younger years and worked part time at Volvo. His dad won an all Japan driver championship so must have been pretty good. It's also true that Yuki went to international school for preschool, but also elementary in his hometown of Sagamihara, Kanagawa, which is next to Tokyo. Estimates for this school are over ten grand a year. He also went to a private high school in that area. Another thing I found was that Tsunoda (or his father) are/were apart of something called the Green Rotary Club in their hometown of Sagamihara and apparently the club fees are pretty steep so people view it as a very "rich person" thing to do (along with enrolling in international school). Finally, the Tsunoda fam is apparently descended from some prominent samurai family so there is an assumption by the public that they have some old money from that. So imo his family is defo rich or got some rich relatives somewhere, though to the family's credit they did do a lot of things to save money (buying generic parts, used carts, towing equipment with the family car, etc) but those are all very Japanese things to me. Everyone pinches pennies, buys used (Mercari and Yahoo Auction are huge markets here), and never throws anything away unless it's those annoying plastic pieces that everything is wrapped in.
@@MrVsGarage you should probably know about 1 of the Albon family businesses, Albon Engineering So no there wealth didn’t come from or all go away due to the moms pyramid scheme You really should make an effort and look at the extended families as that’s where most the wealth comes from in these drivers. I get making as little effort as possible but an extra 15 min or so won’t kill ya
Zhou is in the Stroll tier. Most of their family assets are just divided between his father and uncles but nevertheless his father is the head of the company LLC in Shanghai. His dad literally made a karting track for him (by international standards), and also named most of his holdings and investment companies after his name. It’s hard to pinpoint because they also have holdings outside of china. But still, multiple companies each worth more than $100m in and out of china puts him comfortably in the stroll tier :)
It’s pretty accurate. As he said, just owning a house in the west already puts you at a few hundred thousand minimum, likely closer to a million or more
@@lukereaume6108 and us post-soviets being poor even with a couple of apartments in the ownership lmao just because of the price difference this comparison is kinda relative tbh
Colapinto never had funds to testing his cars in preseason, he almost missed out every season, he also almost missed this F2 season ,he barely secured the backing . he is a Argentinian middle class comfortable, but that still makes him even more poor than Alonso Ocon and Albon
Definitely. £1m in Argentina means you and your kids won't have to work for the rest of your lives and would still live comfortably (no extravagant luxuries, sure, but still). His family was not even close to that. In Argentina what Mr V calls "working class" we call middle class.
You can't bé more poor than ocon , they played the house on the career of their son , they raced in F4 with used tire . Colapinto IS much Richer than ocon , and even had sponsor to support him while ocon had none
You got one thing wrong about Perez. His father is NOW a politician, but wasn't one when he sent his son to Europe racing. He started his politician career in 2015, well after Perez had arrived to F1. Perez earned a spot on Escuderia Telmex (which is funded by Slim) based on his talent. Escuderia Telmex is a very though program where they do demand results to continue your growth.
True, but I question the "do demand results to continue" part, at least to some extend. On the on hand, the stories which are told during his junior career (e.g. Peter Mücke) shows how much trust the Escuderia had in his talent/potential, because it always took a while until his results came. And the funny thing is, I would even say, Esteban Gutierrez had more talent and the better results in the feeder series. But anyway, I do not dispute that the Escuderia demands results, but in a different way than the RB program for example.
TBF... Still blue tier. Checos dad was a former local pro driver. Had enough to have Toño and Checo participating in Carting. And all his children attended private school. I mean... Not rich by anymeans, but comfortable enough to have a shot.
actually so you know leclrerc s family is in the poorest category his father could only partially fund his karting career working 2 or 3 jobs. his whole career from karting to f2 got funded by jules bianchi until his death. when jules died his whole career was almost over but his parents and his big brother put everything they had into funding i think the rest of the season almost going bankrupt until at the end of the season ferrari fulfilled jules wich of signing charles into ferrari driver academy. charles little brother arthur had to stop his career for 2 years until charles himself could fund his little brothers career from his f1 money
People really tend to overestimate their wealth since they’re from Monaco! But iirc actual monegasque citizens get subsidized housing and groceries and basics like that
@@hipotenuza5663funny thing is, Nando comes from way poorer family than Lewis. But just that he doesn't play the victim card about his past every chance he gets I guess
As a Mexican I can tell you previous f1. Checo's family was middle class in Mexico converting the local currency to pounds or dollars he had less than Max or leclerc. Probably like hamilton. They send him to Germany with one way ticket when he was 15. They didn't have money to send someone with him or to return him to Mexico. His father became a politician recently
I agree. I was hoping he wasn’t counting the career his father has now against him. If anything, I think Checo helped his father get the position with his fame. Checo has spoken about calling teams in Europe from Mexico and his parents getting upset about the phone bill. He also had a hand me down car that was his sisters, then his brothers. Checo also lived in a restaurant when he was in Germany.
Reminder for Brits: Lewis went from middle Class to superstar and is worth £270 million Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster and London's richest landlord was BORN into his £9000 million. It would take more than THIRTY once-in-a-lifetime supertalents striking it rich to equal just ONE born-with-a-silver-spoon posh boy.
@@lukew6725 when we think about 'rich people' it probably isn't the famous people we should be thinking of. Most of Britain's wealth in entrenched in a few dudes
If you want to make money, you don't choose a career as a racing driver, that's what you do when you're talented. As this list of parents clearly shows, if you want make money, start a business and if really successful, you could get £9 billion silver spoon fed posh boys of your own.
Tangentially related, but it's interesting to me how the term "middle class" became kind of a grab bag for everybody (at least in my country) from "I don't own a thing but I make just enough to afford living" to "I am rich but not as much as so and so". Imo it's what really makes this kind of discussions complicated. Also a lot of people seem to forget the difference between "net worth" and "annual earnings".
By definition, "middle class" only exists in the context of being somewhere inbetween upper class and lower/working class, so it's always going to vary. But I think the best rule of thumb is: someone with enough money to own the property they live on (probably with but maybe without a mortgage), working a professional career, and if they own a business it's a small business. Whatever dollar amount that adds up to will vary in different countries and economies, but I think it's a close enough guideline.
exactly, people will say that my family is middle (or even upper-middle) class when they see we live in a comfortably big apartment at a wealthy area but this apartment was bought (so, no rent to pay) by my grandparents almost 60 years ago (when it wasn't worth nearly as much) and my dad got it as "inheritance" when i was a baby and my grandparents decided to move to a rural town. anyways, backstory aside, i haven't been able to afford to eat three meals a day since my dad passed earlier this year so how "upper-middle class" can i be? sorry, just wanted to rant (therapy is expensive and youtube comments are free)
Carlos is definetly one step ahead. Not only was his father a succesful wrc (and dakar) driver, his grandfather was also wealthy, well connected and a consul in the times of the dictatorship. His mother has wealthy family names, and you can just assume she also comes from a very wealthy background as well, since composed family names tend to indicate noble class in spain, specially with basque/navarresque antecessors. Probably Doohan and Verstappen are also one step ahead.
IIRC Carlos' grandfather from his mother's side was at one point in time one of the most prolific architects in Spain (I'm 95% sure on architect and like 60 on prolific), and that job makes fairly good money as well
@TheJamonLance I would venture to submit, that on a RUclips displayed video, Carlos Sainz jr. telling a young fan of Formula 1 his correct and full (all-singing, all-dancing, with lights and bells on) family name is: Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro Cenamor Rincón Rebollo Virto Moreno de Aranda de Anteriuga Tiapera Deltún. . . Which, would certainly suggest to the admired racing driver's clamouring throng internationally, (never mind to Spain's interior observers), that aristocratic privilege (There! I've said it now!) represents some decidely 'old money status' harbingers; who, will undoubtedly have influenced matters on 'The Grid.' The medievsl nature of which, would have manifestedly denied in oblivious aloofness any such assist as nce to the low-born Fernanado Alonso. High denomination folding 'la lechuga', as the filthy lucre is occasionally called in colloquial Spanish, ('la pasta' in Argentina), may possess no I.D., but nevertheless persists in being "the root of all evil . . ."
IIRC, Lance Stroll's mom is also exceptionally wealthy, not a billionaire by any means, but wealthy enough that if Lawrence Stroll was poor Lance would still be in the upper half of this list.
about Franco - his family is definitely well off-ish in argentina, but obviously that's no the same as being well off in europe, you know what i mean? his father used to race too, tho i'm not sure exactly in what series and i think he had an important role in a local stock car team. Most likely they own some land and have some form of agricultural bussiness, comfortably middle class (and a bit above, in the context of argentinian economy) is where i would put him for sure, rich enough to fund his karting career locally but not enough to actually be able to pay for it outside of the country without it making a huge dent in the family's networth.
The thing with Carlos Sainz Sr is that calling him a "two-time world champion" actually does him a disservice. He was at the very top for 15 years. He might've only taken the world title twice, but he was 4x runner-up and 5x third placed. That's 11 years he was in the world championship's top 3! And that was across four different manufacturers (Toyota, Subaru, Ford, Citroen) and six different cars.
While being up against other WRC legends McRae, Kankkunen, Auriol, Biasion, Burns, Vatanen, Grönholm, Mäkinen, Solberg, Rovanperä, Loeb The list goes on
@@TheImperfectGuy I don't think Sainz Sr was burning bridges with the teams he raced for, but that's accurate otherwise. It always felt like he was one of the highest regarded, but kept being in the wrong place at the wrong time (i.e. leaving the factory Toyota team when he was the reigning champion because of sponsorship clashes) or failing in critical times, not always his fault. (i.e. losing the '98 world title 300 metres away from the very end, due to mechanical failure)
Real? What constitutes as being a real racing driver? Is Norris worse than Ocon and not a real racing driver because he has rich parents now? What about the glorious Ayrton Senna? He came from wealthy beginnings.
It is substantially harder to get in without money backing you. One needs to be exceptionally brilliant to make it. Eventhough I'm not an Ocon supporter myself, he is brilliant to manage that without anything except skill
@@ey1615 Racing was a rich boy's club to begin with, Esteban breaking into it is a feat to be proud of, considering how far the sport is away from a Meritocracy.
I know the Leclerc family didn't have a sold the house story but his career cost his older brother's karting career and halted his younger brother's karting career.
I would move Jack Doohan up a tier... Mick sold his mansion which he would rent out to celebrities on the gold coast like Johnny Depp and Brad pit. He sold the house for 40 million AUD the house had its own go kart track... So about 20 million pounds and that is just one of the doohans properties
100% agree with this. 500cc GP racing was probably bigger than current Motogp in the 90's and Mick was completely dominant for years. He has big money and big connections.
Saying Lando isn't a pay driver when its common knowledge that Daddy Norris paid 40+million for that McLaren seat is wild. He's talented, he deserves to be there but he definitely bought his seat.
wasn’t it just up until F2? i remember articles coming out that red bull was trying to get him into the toro rosso seat so mclaren needed to promote him to F1. could be wrong but this is just what i remember reading
He didn't had to pay single penny to get that McLaren seat. He has won pretty much every championship he has participated till f3 and was runner up in f2. Helmut Marco has revealed they had a contract ready for him in 2018 before McLaren got to know about it and offered him a better deal. So please stop spreading misinformation.
No, he isn't really a pay driver like Niki Lauda. Horner was eyeing norris for the TR seat mid f3 season. Adam norris used this as a leverage with McLaren and apparently proposed to invest in it or offer perks if McLaren chose his son. Not outright pay for the seat per se. He wanted his son to drive for a fully British team.
Word on the local karting scene is, Mick Doohan was spending approximately 200kAUD a year in the domestic junior go karting in the day. He would fly in a week early for each round and privately rent out the track for the whole week before each race.
Watching these kinds of videos makes you think about how different lifestyles are around the world. For example, a young driver from the middle class in Argentina can easily have to sacrifice a kart race because the refrigerator at home broke and his father needs to buy a new one. I can assure you that Colapinto would hardly be on the list next to Fernando.
Lawsons parents had to sell their house to keep Liam racing, he needed to move into cars early because they could not afford to keep karting on a high level
Albon's father's side worth a mention too. It was an all-out racing family, his dad Nigel did a year of BTCC with Harlow Motorsport, which was meant to be a Renault Junior Team of some sorts. Nigel Albon's brothers(2 or 3?) were also racing simultaneously, their name appeared frequently in the British National racing scene in the 90's. They did Clio Cup, and some single seaters prior to that, if I remember correctly. It was the nineties, but to run 3 cars or more in the British Clio Cup still required plenty of money.
i would probably put charles a little lower. the only reason he could afford to continue racing was because of Jules. His brother had to give it up because their family couldn't afford it.
Adam Norris' early retirement and the ways he made his money are incredibly sus to me. I simply can't fathom how you could make hundreds of millions of personal wealth in such a ludicrously short amount of time from fucking PENSIONS and be operating in good faith, not that pension funds cant make tonnes of money, just the optics of this guy becoming stinking rich when clearly people using their pensions weren't getting similarly endowed, just smells wrong.
I agree with you completely. These people are crooks. 1 Billion Pounds would give 1 Million Pounds to 1 THOUSAND Pensioners. That's enough money to see you through comfortably to the end of your days. Not to men I think the Government is bent and just as crooked as these crooks. How can the pension system allow one person to cream off one Billion of other peoples pensions investments?
The section on Kevin Magnussen is also pretty much completely wrong. His dad had 1.5 years in F1 yes, but he was also notoriously shit with money. He was able to pay for the first few years of Kevin's karting career, but even at that point they were never above middle class. Kevin was living in a small apartment in Roskilde with his mother and his carting career was only really possible because his uncle was his manager, mechanic, driver, pretty much everything (Jan was never home those years) completely for free. Then when Kevin was suppose to move up to single seaters Jan didn't have the money for it and he actually had to stop his racing completely for 6 months, where he studied to be a welder, because he thought his racing career was over. It was only because he got outside backing that he was able to move into formula racing. He actually still owes millions to his backer to this day that he still havn't been able to completely pay off, even after 9 seasons in F1. So putting him anywhere near drivers that come from families with big succesfull businesses simply doesn't make sense.
If Kmag is still in debt with his backers, I wonder how much money drivers in the lower teams actually make from their salaries. I read a breakdown once for Indycar drivers and most where getting a couple of tenths per racing weekend. WITHOUT expenses, so advertising contracts and other sources of income do make a difference for them.
@@faultsy It varies wildly. But KMag has made a pretty good salary (around 5 million dollars a year) at Hass. His debt was around 20 million dollars though, when it was at it's highest. He is lucky that his creditor is not really that focused on getting the money back, so he has just been paying at his own pace it seems. As far as I know it is close to being payed out now. And we know all this since the debt is handled through KMags own company, that has public books as per Danish law.
@@shewasunderwhelmed His backer was the single riches man in Denmark (at least at the time, unsure about now) who seemed to just view it as something he had fun with. Wasn't even really expecting a return, but according to KMag's biography he takes paying the money back very seriously and he is almost done now. I think he is down to around 1-2 millions, so it could be payed out this year.
@@rickyspanish4792 The merit is then his parents enabling millions worth of external sponsorship. Not wealth itself, but funding ability. Out of 100 parents with talented kids, how many can do that? On average perhaps less than 1. A kid's personality/magnetism can make a lot of the difference to backers. A spoiled brat who picks fights might not do as well as an equally fast precious angel who sings the national anthem before every race, whether anyone listens or not.
@@Cloxxki yeah definitely. personality, commercial skills etc. is about as important as raw driving skill :) but these things are all merit to me, as in, not inherited wealth.
Albon did mention in the interview that after the arrest of his mom, he had to find another source of backing to continue racing. The reason why he races under the Thai flag is because the backing he found was from a sponsorship program of a Thai company (ThaiBev) that was trying to promote Thais into international motorsport. He was half Thai so he took on that opportunity.
Little late to the video, but you actually got Checo wrong. He went through the Escuderia Telmex program to get them as his sponsors, not because of his father political ties, since his father started his political career in 2015, years after Checo made his F1 debut. He had to move to Germany when he was 14 years old, all alone and live in a restaurant where he worked as a kitchen aid. He barely spoke to his family the whole time because international calls were too expensive and they couln't really afford it. He came from very humble begginings and knowing hos whole story I'd definitley put him into the not comfortably middle class tier.
"We had to sell our house to finance his career" It was just our 3rd summer home in Costa Rica, but still As someone who is comfortably poor as fuck all these stories astonish me to be perfectly honest. LMAO
A small difference between Alonso and Ocon: While Alonso's family didn't have the money for wet tyres, Ocon's family didn't have the 2 million to get through the junior ranks. There is a difference between that.
Alonso's family didn't had even the money to allow Fernando race on international championships of karting. They kept forward thanks to the money prizes that Alonso managed to win with his victories in national races and championships, but that wasn't enough to keep going out of Spain. It was thanks to a man named Genís Marcó and his father, owner of a few kart circuits and kart teams, that bet for Fernando to promote his career, helping him and allowing him to continue developing racing on Europe. Without that help, that came after they watch Alonso's talent on display, Fernando wouldn't have any chance to even show to the world the kind of driver he is.
What do you say is just not true. Ocons Parents selled their home and drove in a motorhome around europe so Ocon could race. His dad was also his engineer
@@LH_447 Those races throughout Europe are the junior program. I am saying that Alonso's family was literally surviving on the pricemoney by Alonso, there was no money to go to other European races (until Genís Marcó). That is way different than selling house and garage to buy a motorhome for touring throughout Europe.
Kimi's family home didn't even have an indoor toilet. I don't think we'll ever see drivers like Alonso, Kimi, and Mika anymore from very humble backgrounds.
His uncle, not his dad. If he had won the F3 championship on his rookie year, he wouldn't have the money to go in F2. But he didn't, so he could stay in F3. Yes, he was not struggling given that he could finance F3 but that's not being a billionaire's kids too.
@@ramanjatonirinafarafehizor7421 He had an incredible title fight with Oscar piastri, are you suggesting he threw the championship because he didn't have the money to advance?
@@ramanjatonirinafarafehizor7421 he couldn't have continued on F3 either. He had even announced a move to sportscars due to a lack of funds, failing to have the money to stay in F3. That was shortly before Williams signed him on the young driver programme and slotted him directly in F2. His family might be rich, but they sure weren't helping him THAT much.
Funny how they always say, these are the best drivers in the world. It’s like, not really, these are the best driver’s out of the small group of people whose parents can actually afford to put them into racing. It reminds me of hearing the stat, that if you’re 7ft tall theirs a 25% chance you’re in the nba.
well it's a sport that skews towards the affluent and ultra-wealthy, no doubt about it. But you can see that it is possible for some guys not from that space to scrimp and pinch to get to F1. But F1's exclusivity is part of why it's so popular, if anyone could get in as long as they could drive it probably would've have the worldwide appeal that it does.
That’s true for a lot of sports though, even if you don’t need money to partake. There’s really only three or four sports that are truly sports for the masses (football, basketball, athletics, ?), all the rest are smaller sports where you can wonder if the topplayers really are the best in the world, or just the best of the limited group that practices that particular sport.
Gabriel Bortoleto who is a possible driver for Sauber/Audi next year is PRETTY rich too. His father Lincoln Oliveira is one of the owners of the United Partners (investment fund) that controls the "Stock Car series" in Brasil that generates annual profit of $1Bi+. He is the founder and CEO of Americanet, a telecomunication company in Brazil with more than 800 employees that has an annual revenue of $392.7M. He is probably in the Norris/Bearman/Zhou Tier, ngl probably ahead of Norris.
Forbes take note should be changed to 150M+ second one should be changed to15-100M Doohan should be there, Sainz most likely too. very comfortable should be extended to 15M starting at 2, Perez could be tricky might even be a tier below, Leclerc should be bottom tier. Add a new one 1-2M Ricardo should be there, yuki, Albon too or even one or two above. and colapinto should probably also be in the lowest tier as he is from argentina and also had serious troubles...
Jos Verstappen wasn't really that well off during max his junior career. at one point he had to go 400k or so in debt for max to continue before red bull came in.
Didn't K-Mag have to quit racing and work in a factory for a while because he lacked funding? And Checo's father became a politician only after Checo became a successful F1 driver. And I agree with you about when F1 drivers say 'We had to sell our home.', 'We went through many struggles.' etc. while really just exaggerating, but yeah, they did struggle a lot to get where they are, even Lance and you cannot convince me otherwise. I enjoy this type of chill, kind of long content.
Mercedes paid EJ $150k for Schumacher's debut drive, not 500k. And Senna's family paid Ayrton's way thru his junior formulae career in Britain. That's the way it is in motorsport... no cash, no drive.
i googled the Revenue of the Hülkenberg Logitics company. The Net winnings of that were around 80-100k a year, so idk if his family is actually stacked tbh
Being from Mexico I can only comment on what I know about the mexican driver. Checo's father became a politician recently, taking advantage on his own son's popularity already as an established F1 driver. Before that he used to be the PR representative for Adrian Fernandez throughout his ChampCar career where he got close to the Slim family who supported Checo's earlier career. With the value or the mexican peso and the lower cost of living I would put him at best in one of the two middle class categories at the time Checo entered F1.
I’ve seen Checo speak about having to look for sponsors and also his parents getting upset at him for calling to European teams since the phone bill was high. If I had 1-10 million dollars I wouldn’t be worried about the phone bill 😂
Let's make one thing clear: in junior formulas, EVERYBODY is a paying driver. You need to pay a lot of money to drive for PREMA or Hightech, or Carlin/Rodin...
Franco Colapinto is from middle argentinian class, so in european terms he is from a not at all comfortable class haha. His father sold his house to pay the last year he was racing before williams took him at their academy. Later in twitter he went viral in argentina asking for sponsors and the artist Bizarrap helped him. We -all the country- helped him find sponsors.
Just to add, Colapinto's father sold his house and bought a cheap house in the countryside and the whole family went to live there to be able to pay for his son's career This was said in a Spanish interview recently.
Mick Doohan is worth way more than 1M, he was earning 6m a year as 500 Honda World Champion. He has various business ventures, Fantastic home etc. Man was amazing and would have won more titles if not for horrendious injuries. Proper Legend.
That one is even harder to find out. Lots of the time backing is kept intentionally secret when certain companies don't want to be seen at picking favourites or associating with people from certain countries etc.
I wouldn't really classify Ocon or Albon as working class. One had a family wealthy enough to own a house and sell it to fund his racing career and the other was rich at certain points of his early life. Neither are truly working class. Alonso is the only one I'd say that is actually working class from the moment he is born until he makes it to F1.
I know there's a lot of guessing in some cases, it would require a long time to do deep research. For example, Perez's father was a driver himself but never made real money in Mexico, so in his own words he was low middle class, didn't have the money for tyres, but he worked for some teams and made some connections, fast-forward Checo joined Escudería Telmex, Checo's junior career in Europe, at least the 3 first years, was with very limited funding, in the begginig he was staying at little room in a hostel with no family, not knowing the language, no money hahaha it was tough.
Checo was poor, but he has the backing of one of the wealthiest person in the world, Carlos Slim, who has supported economically since he was a child, Slim believed in the project of manufacturing an F1 driver since childhood because he's a huge F1 fan. But if you want to know who started the poorest driver, it's Checo, by far.
Franco's dad is now a lawyer but back in the day he raced with moto and did some enduro and speedway, and franco said that the love of Motorsport came from being with his dad being a TC engineer which is an Argentinian racing series, I don't know how much might be that in dollars but they did had to risk it all when sending franco to italy alone. Nonetheless Franco is from Pilar which is a kind of wealthy place to live in Argentina But yes is really hard to find information about his family, but Franco talked about it in a few programs he went to here in Argentina, hope this helps btw, I love your videos sm ❤
So... for some context, a house equivalent to the one a wealthy person would be able to afford anywhere in the world is about 200k to 300k USD in Pilar... that is not much when you consider that the AVERAGE house in italy costs around €180k Your average European would be filthy rich in Argentina. Renting a really nice house costs around 500usd/month and we talking multiple bathrooms, 3 rooms, living room, kitchen and dinning hall with garage and a backyard... So I doubt Colapinto's family house was able to finance anything beyond placing him on the spot during his F4 season, and nothing more than that, fortunately he won the championship and James Vowels noticed him kickstarting his career in the Williams Academy. A good lawyer in a big firm here makes around 4000usd/month unless they work for the goverment or a huge firm or are just incredibly successful and make 2k more or so... that isn't enough to finance anything outside Argentina it wouldn't even be enough to go past the first tier of this poorly researched list even they would need to be billionaries in Argentina to be worth 1m pounds
Didn’t Lando’s dad pay around $40mil over a few years for Lando to be the sim driver and then reserve driver for McLaren? How is that not a pay driver?
looks like Mick Doohan Net Worth from motogp He has an estimated net worth of $5 million that he gained after winning five consecutive 500 cc World Championships. Doohan is now the go-to man if you want to buy a corporate jet in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and, perhaps soon, China. He also runs successful businesses providing aviation services, and has broad property and business investments. Yet if you'd seen him on a race weekend, way back when, you might not have chosen him as an ideal luncheon companion, let alone believed he could charm you into a $60 million Gulfstream G650. He would have said almost nothing, and given you a cold stare if you were an opponent or, perhaps worse, a journalist.
BTW, saying that Alonso had backing and Lewis comes from middle class.. Lewis was backed since he was 13 by McLaren, his dad did not have to pay a penny after that... So, Lewis had a TON of backing, if we want to go down that route... I don't think that is relevant, even the poorest in the last two decades, Räikkönen had backing. He also had to live in a camper van while his parents were building a home, but also had to use outdoor toilet when he was a kid. They lived in the country side and it wasn't that uncommon back then. But he also had backing from very early on, and so did all of them... That is the one thing that is mandatory, you need sponsors from your first seasons onwards, someone to back you. You need to shine on your second season to get a career in F1, you need to attract a local backer who sees the potential. Lots of those local companies never see return from their investment.. but companies are willing to sponsor a lot of things, i work in event organizing and getting sponsors is routine. They want to be seen in another context so while it rarely is worth it monetarily in the short run, they are not going to get a huge boost in sales but it can build enough reputation for being there for the community. And that can help in other things... like, people not raisin complaints when they want to build a new shop/factory etc.
bro he mentions backing just to point out that fernando wouldn't be able to continue racing if not for it. Obviously most of the drivers have backings but fernando wouldn't even be in junior categories out of Spain if not for the engineer who helped him. Alonso's biggest ambition was to be a karting mechanic ffs he didn't even dream of reaching f1
Fernando Alonso is a unique case. He came from really humble beggings, his father built a go kart for his sister but she didn't like, so he inherited it at a really young age, didn't have any spare parts, limited tires etc as you said but he was spotted by the Campos family (who own nowadays the well established junior team) and got their backing, and finally could afford big chances at Formula Nissan and F1 thanks to Movistar backing, who at the time were the biggest telecom company in Spain.
Checo’s family could be in it the lowest not comfortable middle class . There are many documentaries and interviews where they tell the story of how they struggle in the karting eras for the three kids his sister Paola , his brother Toño an Checo . They all three were racing . The politician years started way later in 2015 when Checo was a know driver .
For franco colapinto, if you consider his family wealth relative to other Argentinian family the yes, he is comfortably middle class but his family for sure are worth less than £1m
hahaha, Jos Verstappen used all his money for divorces and struggled to finance Max's kart career. It'll be below 1M and middle class, he actually moved to a standard house to be able to buy a camper van. Checo's dad is mega loaded .... where do you get your info?
Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Mika Häkkinen, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell are also notable examples from the past for champions who came from humble beginnings similar to Alonso btw. People underestimate the number of financially average people who made it to the top of F1 racing.
This ranking is so weird. Not only do we have no info whatsoever about 19 out of the 20 drivers' parents (we have good info about Stroll because Sportswear Holdings is on Pitchbook and their portfolio companies were publicly traded) but we also don't know if they rented their house, if they had a mortgage or paid it off/bought outright, don't know jack about their private investments or any possible inheritances, ownership structures of HPTuners for example, etc. Seems very arbitrary to have more than three categories that divide the wealth into "very rich", "fairly rich" and "average/not well off"
For example, insurance companies trade at approximately 1x EV/Sales (awful metric yes but the guy in the video only shared revenue and total assets of Aventum), meaning the entire business is worth 100 million pounds. Assuming 2/3 equity financing, that's 66 million equity value. Now I doubt Mr Bearman is the sole shareholder but even if he were this puts him nowhere near the 100 million club, showcasing just how arbitrary this ranking is without proper financials.
ANd last but not least "pay driver" never meant that the driver's parents can easily finance their son's racing career, it means the parents phyically pay their teams money so that they get the seat. Which neither Norris nor Bearman are even remotely close to.
Guan Yu is actually quite a big name in China, taken from a famous historical character who was made even more famous by the most successful historical novel of all times (seriously, he's in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Calling your son Guan Yu in China is kinda like calling him Lionheart in the UK.
Checo’s family didn’t had money, I’ll put him on the bottom bracket, his father worked on Adrian Fernandez racing team and in 2015 he became a politician, Checo fought his seat in Escudería Telmex with pure talent, and Telmex (Carlos Slim) has been backing him his hole career. I think he’s very admirable to be where hi is now.
I mean F1 as a whole is a sport made for the rich. Just comparing to other sports where you need a ball, a pole and little else, compared to a kart, a helmet, a specific place. If you are in the junior leagues, you have bread, thats it, doesn't matter if you have billions or millions or thousands, you have it. This isn't football, or basketball, or baseball or any of the sort. This is a rich sport for rich people, golf-style.
Daniel’s dad owns Ricciardo earthmoving. Definitely more than middle class. I lived 6-7 hours out of Perth growing up and remembering them doing some kind of major roadworks type stuff in a town close to me so I assume he is doing alright for himself.
that is only after daniel found success in f1. they couldn't afford it all back then and daniel did waitressing to earn money at 17 years old, living on his own in Italy
That's the wrong Ricciardo's, Kym Illman spoke about that on his channel once that people often mix them up, but they are two completely different families. Both Daniels father and the owner of Ricciardo earthmoving are named Joe Ricciardo, so I understand why they get mixed up.
I don't know much about the cities of the UK, but it seems like whenever Hamilton talks about being a boy from Stevenage he makes it sound like it was some poor working class neighborhood.
not to bad, maybe im biased but Colopinto and Lawson id put in lower middle class. both had to work hard to secure funding but there familys didnt have much to put in. there talent is what got them to f1. NZ and Argentina are big sport nations so when they showed they have potential to be a future champion and make headlines there will be money to find somewhere. sadly i dont think Colopinto will be on the grid in 2025 but hopfuly hes in for 2026 and Lawson gets a promo to red bull when hes ready
Landos dad also brokered the engine deal when McLaren went from Honda to Mercedes via Horatio Investments (his company) I can't remember if the potential partnership is why Lando got into the junior program or if Lando being in the program helped spark the partnership, but yeah.
A thing about Kmag. His younger brother is currently doing karting, trying to become an f1 driver. There is a danish documentary about them where you see them trying to scrape together sponsorships and so on. Of course Jan Magnussen is now retired so maybe doesnt have the same amount of money as he did when Kevin was a child but I don't think they were suuper wealthy.
You didn't do your homework on Mick Doohan. He did a lot of property investment while racing, and then opened a private charter air service. You could bump Jack up a category
A family friend is or was friends with Fernando's family. Can confirm they were not well off. They probably didn't struggle at all, but they made massive efforts to put him through the karting tiers. He also comes from the relative middle of nowhere in Spain, so any connection must have been very very weak compared to others in the list.
I think you're bang on with most of these. Sainz Sr could definitely afford the best British GP tickets (im guessing 20-50m net worth with career earnings, investments, and whatnot). Riccardo's family is definitely in the very comfortable tier, and I guess despite Albon's mom's financial crimes was still comfortably middle-class. And if Sargeant was still in F1, he'd also be Stroll tier
Obligatory "now do a F1 drivers parents companies logos as tracks" video
I'll add it to the list... it's video number #307 in the pipeline at this point
@@MrVsGarage does that mean you will make 306 videos before?
@@indykirchenbauerracing1709👀
@@indykirchenbauerracing1709 Will Buxton?
we already talked about the Aston Martin logo and though
Not watched this yet but I'm guessing lance strolls story of a young boy with a financially struggling family coming up through the ranks to eventually be one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport is going to be really inspiring.
Almost😊
Think again
I'm going to have to break it to him aren't I?...
I heard his dad sold his house for him to become a f1 driver.
yeah he’s just under Goatifi
Magnussen is hard to judge. He actually grew up with his mum while Jan was racing, and they had him when they were both teenagers. He grew up in council housing, and moved around often, and was definitely not well off by any stretch of the imagination. In his book, he says it was tough for him mum because she struggled to afford simple pleasures like cheese, while Jan could afford to buy Kevin like the new PlayStation and stuff like that once he started becoming successful. Jan's prime was actually while Kevin was already a teenager and professional racing driver himself.
But Jan himself did not become rich before the 00s, and he was straight up poor until he made it to a seat in F1. Kevin has said that for the first 4 years of his life, he barely talked to his dad because Jan lived in England at the time because of his career, and none of them could afford international phone calls.
So Kevin really is a tale of two worlds.
I'm just commenting on this to help the algorithm. Great comment
It's also interesting how Kevin is a welder and actually worked as one for a while (or at least so the story goes). I wonder if he actually picked it up so he could have something to fall back on in case racing didn't turn out the way it did.
@@annadelsiena No, he legit worked a year like that.
Mr V pin this
@@annadelsiena It was meant as a job he could fall back on, but he disliked working there. He loved the people who he worked with, but he disliked the work.
Sainz is old money, shouldve been higher. Grandfather was politican and Carlos Sr invested a lot of money
He also has a LOT of surnames. In Spain, that means money. A lot of money
His grandfather was a diplomatic figure in Spain, also he killed a guy with a shotgun in the 90s in a robbery.
@@LeonardoAldana43 my brother in christ, everyone in spain has a fuck ton of surnames, thats just how it works. he just happened to make a funny skit out of it for the ferrari youtube chnnel
@@gonzalogil5604 The more you have, the more old money you have. That’s how it works with spanish names (not only Spain)
@@LeonardoAldana43 same in Portugal. More surnames = more family tradition through the centuries = more money.
I raced go karts at the same time George was racing and actually raced against him a few times in my first year. The "caravan" in question was a circa £300k motorhome big enough to store his kart and all the equipment in. I have enormous respect for George because he was and is an extremely talented driver but his dad sure wasn't short on cash!
Living in a motorhome, because you can afford the nice one :)
What track did you race on?
@@NeboReve PFI was my local track which is where I raced against George. Fulbeck and Wombwell were the other two tracks I raced at regularly
This is also why these lists are pointless if you don’t look into the extended family as most of these parents gained most of their wealth from their parents and families
i mean u hear georges accent and u hear big money nobody normal talks like that here
4:57 my name is Forbes and normally hearing it in reference to the magazine doesn't phase me. But I was watching this in the background and I suddenly heard "Forbes take note!" and you immediately had my undivided attention.
Now I just need to say every other surname in existence and I'll have perfect 100% retention on every video
Maybe I can fill in some of the gaps for Yuki. His dad Nobuaki worked in an insurance-related field and his mom Minako was a lab tech affiliated with a university. His family weren't struggling, you can tell by how Yuki attended an English kindergarten which is typically quite expensive in Japan. But it should be noted he didn't grow up in an expensive place like Tokyo, more of a normal city and he went to public schools. He's also mentioned recently in Taiwan that his karting put a financial strain on his family and his small size helped somewhat because his family didn't have to buy new equipment for him as often. If Honda had not selected him for the Honda Formula Dream Project, he likely would have only had a racing career in Japan or had to quit.
Thank you for this! I struggled finding anything about Yuki but I admit I could have spent longer researching this. Interesting that his dad was only a part time driver but that makes sense as most Motorsport (or even most sport) doesn't pay anywhere near enough to live on
@@MrVsGarage I think the lack of English language sources is tricky, you kind have to wade into fan forums to find stuff. Like even with Pierre, he mentioned in the biography written about him that both his parents had to work to afford his karting and he once came home to their belongings being repo'd because they were behind on payments. The private school he attended was funded by the French karting federation to help talented young racers that were missing out on classes. Anthoine Hubert and Esteban also attended it
@@MrVsGarageyou didn’t add Logan Sargent
I can read Japanese so I looked his fam up on Japanese websites and it basically says that his family ain't poor, at least in the eye of the Japanese public. It's correct that his dad is an insurance executive that owns his own shop in Tokyo. He makes anywhere from 200,000 USD to over 650,000 USD a year. His mom was also a lab tech at a university until 2021.
His dad was a racer (in something called "jimukaana" in which you race solo around the track and try for the fastest time) in his younger years and worked part time at Volvo. His dad won an all Japan driver championship so must have been pretty good.
It's also true that Yuki went to international school for preschool, but also elementary in his hometown of Sagamihara, Kanagawa, which is next to Tokyo. Estimates for this school are over ten grand a year. He also went to a private high school in that area.
Another thing I found was that Tsunoda (or his father) are/were apart of something called the Green Rotary Club in their hometown of Sagamihara and apparently the club fees are pretty steep so people view it as a very "rich person" thing to do (along with enrolling in international school).
Finally, the Tsunoda fam is apparently descended from some prominent samurai family so there is an assumption by the public that they have some old money from that.
So imo his family is defo rich or got some rich relatives somewhere, though to the family's credit they did do a lot of things to save money (buying generic parts, used carts, towing equipment with the family car, etc) but those are all very Japanese things to me. Everyone pinches pennies, buys used (Mercari and Yahoo Auction are huge markets here), and never throws anything away unless it's those annoying plastic pieces that everything is wrapped in.
@@MrVsGarage you should probably know about 1 of the Albon family businesses, Albon Engineering
So no there wealth didn’t come from or all go away due to the moms pyramid scheme
You really should make an effort and look at the extended families as that’s where most the wealth comes from in these drivers. I get making as little effort as possible but an extra 15 min or so won’t kill ya
Zhou is in the Stroll tier. Most of their family assets are just divided between his father and uncles but nevertheless his father is the head of the company LLC in Shanghai. His dad literally made a karting track for him (by international standards), and also named most of his holdings and investment companies after his name. It’s hard to pinpoint because they also have holdings outside of china. But still, multiple companies each worth more than $100m in and out of china puts him comfortably in the stroll tier :)
90% of the drivers have a mountain of money spread throughout there family
Dude just phoned this in and couldn’t be bothered
@@rbslammed6163 not to mention all the inheritance from grandparents. Many of the drivers are from old money families.
I would love to be this middle class described here
It’s pretty accurate. As he said, just owning a house in the west already puts you at a few hundred thousand minimum, likely closer to a million or more
So would I, so would I..
@@lukereaume6108 and us post-soviets being poor even with a couple of apartments in the ownership lmao just because of the price difference
this comparison is kinda relative tbh
I had to skip his idea of "classes".... Up to 1 million pounds is middle-class ? 😂
@HallStevenson what would you say is middle class in the UK?
Colapinto never had funds to testing his cars in preseason, he almost missed out every season, he also almost missed this F2 season ,he barely secured the backing . he is a Argentinian middle class comfortable, but that still makes him even more poor than Alonso Ocon and Albon
Definitely. £1m in Argentina means you and your kids won't have to work for the rest of your lives and would still live comfortably (no extravagant luxuries, sure, but still). His family was not even close to that. In Argentina what Mr V calls "working class" we call middle class.
Fr, the audacity of putting him in the same tier as Bottas, Ric or even George shows how little he investigated for this tier list
You can't bé more poor than ocon , they played the house on the career of their son , they raced in F4 with used tire . Colapinto IS much Richer than ocon , and even had sponsor to support him while ocon had none
@@fulse1856 do you research
@@fulse1856You can be much poorer but if you're poorer than Ocon you just won't be in motorsport.
The duality of Aston Martin lol
If the current standings is a RBR sandwich, this tier list is an Aston Martin sandwich
@@ruohonleikkaaja but the current standings are not an RBR sandwich. Perez is bad, but not that bad.
@@herbertkraft7379 well yeah, not exactly correct on my part but the top 8 is a sandwich which emphasises the ironic point i was trying to show.
You got one thing wrong about Perez. His father is NOW a politician, but wasn't one when he sent his son to Europe racing. He started his politician career in 2015, well after Perez had arrived to F1.
Perez earned a spot on Escuderia Telmex (which is funded by Slim) based on his talent. Escuderia Telmex is a very though program where they do demand results to continue your growth.
@@ojalife6635 And Guti got a seat there
@@LeonardoAldana43 yes, most mexicans go through Escuderia Telmex to have a shot. Pato and Noel Leon are few of the non-Escuderia Telmex alums
Checo's my guy! This dude's implication of the family sound like they were in the coca business
True, but I question the "do demand results to continue" part, at least to some extend. On the on hand, the stories which are told during his junior career (e.g. Peter Mücke) shows how much trust the Escuderia had in his talent/potential, because it always took a while until his results came. And the funny thing is, I would even say, Esteban Gutierrez had more talent and the better results in the feeder series. But anyway, I do not dispute that the Escuderia demands results, but in a different way than the RB program for example.
TBF...
Still blue tier. Checos dad was a former local pro driver. Had enough to have Toño and Checo participating in Carting. And all his children attended private school.
I mean... Not rich by anymeans, but comfortable enough to have a shot.
actually so you know leclrerc s family is in the poorest category his father could only partially fund his karting career working 2 or 3 jobs. his whole career from karting to f2 got funded by jules bianchi until his death. when jules died his whole career was almost over but his parents and his big brother put everything they had into funding i think the rest of the season almost going bankrupt until at the end of the season ferrari fulfilled jules wich of signing charles into ferrari driver academy. charles little brother arthur had to stop his career for 2 years until charles himself could fund his little brothers career from his f1 money
Thank you for sharing this! It's always just the story of Lewis and his father working two jobs.
People really tend to overestimate their wealth since they’re from Monaco! But iirc actual monegasque citizens get subsidized housing and groceries and basics like that
@@hipotenuza5663funny thing is, Nando comes from way poorer family than Lewis. But just that he doesn't play the victim card about his past every chance he gets I guess
@@ShaeRose98bullshit, his grandfather is owner of mecaplast, car parts company which revenue, last year was more than 1,2B$
@@ShaeRose98 Yes but even tough there's that, you still have to pretty rich by normal standards to actually live in Monaco proper.
As a Mexican I can tell you previous f1. Checo's family was middle class in Mexico converting the local currency to pounds or dollars he had less than Max or leclerc. Probably like hamilton.
They send him to Germany with one way ticket when he was 15. They didn't have money to send someone with him or to return him to Mexico.
His father became a politician recently
I agree. I was hoping he wasn’t counting the career his father has now against him. If anything, I think Checo helped his father get the position with his fame. Checo has spoken about calling teams in Europe from Mexico and his parents getting upset about the phone bill. He also had a hand me down car that was his sisters, then his brothers. Checo also lived in a restaurant when he was in Germany.
Reminder for Brits: Lewis went from middle Class to superstar and is worth £270 million
Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster and London's richest landlord was BORN into his £9000 million.
It would take more than THIRTY once-in-a-lifetime supertalents striking it rich to equal just ONE born-with-a-silver-spoon posh boy.
Okay, and?
@@lukew6725 when we think about 'rich people' it probably isn't the famous people we should be thinking of. Most of Britain's wealth in entrenched in a few dudes
@@pavarottiaardvark3431 it takes being a warlord and taking all that land to be as rich as the posh boy
wow....
If you want to make money, you don't choose a career as a racing driver, that's what you do when you're talented. As this list of parents clearly shows, if you want make money, start a business and if really successful, you could get £9 billion silver spoon fed posh boys of your own.
stroll will surely have the most heartwarming and inspiring story
All you need to live your dream as a f1 driver is a billionaire father who owns a f1 team. You can do it too!
Tangentially related, but it's interesting to me how the term "middle class" became kind of a grab bag for everybody (at least in my country) from "I don't own a thing but I make just enough to afford living" to "I am rich but not as much as so and so". Imo it's what really makes this kind of discussions complicated. Also a lot of people seem to forget the difference between "net worth" and "annual earnings".
By definition, "middle class" only exists in the context of being somewhere inbetween upper class and lower/working class, so it's always going to vary. But I think the best rule of thumb is: someone with enough money to own the property they live on (probably with but maybe without a mortgage), working a professional career, and if they own a business it's a small business. Whatever dollar amount that adds up to will vary in different countries and economies, but I think it's a close enough guideline.
exactly, people will say that my family is middle (or even upper-middle) class when they see we live in a comfortably big apartment at a wealthy area but this apartment was bought (so, no rent to pay) by my grandparents almost 60 years ago (when it wasn't worth nearly as much) and my dad got it as "inheritance" when i was a baby and my grandparents decided to move to a rural town. anyways, backstory aside, i haven't been able to afford to eat three meals a day since my dad passed earlier this year so how "upper-middle class" can i be?
sorry, just wanted to rant (therapy is expensive and youtube comments are free)
Class is often conflated with wealth, but are not the same thing. Wealth equates to financial resources; class is more about social connections.
Carlos is definetly one step ahead. Not only was his father a succesful wrc (and dakar) driver, his grandfather was also wealthy, well connected and a consul in the times of the dictatorship. His mother has wealthy family names, and you can just assume she also comes from a very wealthy background as well, since composed family names tend to indicate noble class in spain, specially with basque/navarresque antecessors.
Probably Doohan and Verstappen are also one step ahead.
IIRC Carlos' grandfather from his mother's side was at one point in time one of the most prolific architects in Spain (I'm 95% sure on architect and like 60 on prolific), and that job makes fairly good money as well
@TheJamonLance
I would venture to submit, that on a RUclips displayed video, Carlos Sainz jr. telling a young fan of Formula 1 his correct and full (all-singing, all-dancing, with lights and bells on) family name is:
Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro Cenamor Rincón Rebollo Virto Moreno de Aranda de Anteriuga Tiapera Deltún. . .
Which, would certainly suggest to the admired racing driver's clamouring throng internationally, (never mind to Spain's interior observers), that aristocratic privilege (There! I've said it now!) represents some decidely 'old money status' harbingers; who, will undoubtedly have influenced matters on 'The Grid.'
The medievsl nature of which, would have manifestedly denied in oblivious aloofness any such assist as nce to the low-born Fernanado Alonso.
High denomination folding 'la lechuga', as the filthy lucre is occasionally called in colloquial Spanish, ('la pasta' in Argentina), may possess no I.D., but nevertheless persists in being "the root of all evil . . ."
IIRC, Lance Stroll's mom is also exceptionally wealthy, not a billionaire by any means, but wealthy enough that if Lawrence Stroll was poor Lance would still be in the upper half of this list.
about Franco - his family is definitely well off-ish in argentina, but obviously that's no the same as being well off in europe, you know what i mean? his father used to race too, tho i'm not sure exactly in what series and i think he had an important role in a local stock car team. Most likely they own some land and have some form of agricultural bussiness, comfortably middle class (and a bit above, in the context of argentinian economy) is where i would put him for sure, rich enough to fund his karting career locally but not enough to actually be able to pay for it outside of the country without it making a huge dent in the family's networth.
The thing with Carlos Sainz Sr is that calling him a "two-time world champion" actually does him a disservice. He was at the very top for 15 years.
He might've only taken the world title twice, but he was 4x runner-up and 5x third placed. That's 11 years he was in the world championship's top 3!
And that was across four different manufacturers (Toyota, Subaru, Ford, Citroen) and six different cars.
let alone the dakar racing afterwards... 4 time champion
Damn that's sounds like Fernando's career
While being up against other WRC legends
McRae, Kankkunen, Auriol, Biasion, Burns, Vatanen, Grönholm, Mäkinen, Solberg, Rovanperä, Loeb
The list goes on
@@TheImperfectGuy I don't think Sainz Sr was burning bridges with the teams he raced for, but that's accurate otherwise. It always felt like he was one of the highest regarded, but kept being in the wrong place at the wrong time (i.e. leaving the factory Toyota team when he was the reigning champion because of sponsorship clashes) or failing in critical times, not always his fault. (i.e. losing the '98 world title 300 metres away from the very end, due to mechanical failure)
@@marjoh669 probably the best times the WRC has ever had.
I think Mazepin, Mick Schumacher, Latifi, Vettel and Sargeant would have been interesting
Mazespin Stroll level, Mick Forbes, latifi stroll level, seb bottom of list, logan maybe on forbes level
@@TheAndostro Mazepin about 3 times richer than stroll - controls aa big chunk of the worlds fertiliser production
@@johncale1849 yeah but there is no tier higher
I dislike ocon a lot but knowing he’s one of the real racing drivers makes me tolerate him a tad more.
Real? What constitutes as being a real racing driver? Is Norris worse than Ocon and not a real racing driver because he has rich parents now?
What about the glorious Ayrton Senna? He came from wealthy beginnings.
😂hating rich people is ridiculous
It is substantially harder to get in without money backing you. One needs to be exceptionally brilliant to make it. Eventhough I'm not an Ocon supporter myself, he is brilliant to manage that without anything except skill
@@ey1615 Racing was a rich boy's club to begin with, Esteban breaking into it is a feat to be proud of, considering how far the sport is away from a Meritocracy.
I know the Leclerc family didn't have a sold the house story but his career cost his older brother's karting career and halted his younger brother's karting career.
I would move Jack Doohan up a tier... Mick sold his mansion which he would rent out to celebrities on the gold coast like Johnny Depp and Brad pit. He sold the house for 40 million AUD the house had its own go kart track... So about 20 million pounds and that is just one of the doohans properties
When did Mick sell the house? Asset bubble in Australia distorts the market in the last few years.
He sold the property in 2022.
But, yeah, Doohan's other reported business activities easily put him north of 20 million UK pounds.
100% agree with this. 500cc GP racing was probably bigger than current Motogp in the 90's and Mick was completely dominant for years. He has big money and big connections.
Mick Doohan also owns a flat in Monaco. Apparently it was/is next to a flat owned by Michael Schumacher. I’m guessing it’s pretty nice in that case!
This makes me want to see a "My dad is better than your dad" type list of F1 drivers who had the most successful racing parents.
That’s a good one! Mick, Carlos and Jack would be top tier
Sainz hands down, his dad is still out there winning shit. Pretty sure sainz senior is going to drive himself to his own funeral
@@hez_am_i2448 the old man is a legend and still going strong! He’s fitter and more athletic than me and I’m 3 times younger 😂
@@estherluciano9623 pretty sure he eats danger for breakfast
Saying Lando isn't a pay driver when its common knowledge that Daddy Norris paid 40+million for that McLaren seat is wild. He's talented, he deserves to be there but he definitely bought his seat.
wasn’t it just up until F2? i remember articles coming out that red bull was trying to get him into the toro rosso seat so mclaren needed to promote him to F1. could be wrong but this is just what i remember reading
Lol 40 + million, redbull and McLaren was fighting to get him, just f*ck off bro with your hate
He didn't had to pay single penny to get that McLaren seat. He has won pretty much every championship he has participated till f3 and was runner up in f2. Helmut Marco has revealed they had a contract ready for him in 2018 before McLaren got to know about it and offered him a better deal. So please stop spreading misinformation.
No, he isn't really a pay driver like Niki Lauda. Horner was eyeing norris for the TR seat mid f3 season. Adam norris used this as a leverage with McLaren and apparently proposed to invest in it or offer perks if McLaren chose his son. Not outright pay for the seat per se. He wanted his son to drive for a fully British team.
It’s been already well said and documented that until f2 he got his dad to pay the seat but never paid for McLaren seat.
Word on the local karting scene is, Mick Doohan was spending approximately 200kAUD a year in the domestic junior go karting in the day. He would fly in a week early for each round and privately rent out the track for the whole week before each race.
Watching these kinds of videos makes you think about how different lifestyles are around the world. For example, a young driver from the middle class in Argentina can easily have to sacrifice a kart race because the refrigerator at home broke and his father needs to buy a new one. I can assure you that Colapinto would hardly be on the list next to Fernando.
Lawsons parents had to sell their house to keep Liam racing, he needed to move into cars early because they could not afford to keep karting on a high level
And he lived in Onehunga, not a rich area at all
Albon's father's side worth a mention too.
It was an all-out racing family, his dad Nigel did a year of BTCC with Harlow Motorsport, which was meant to be a Renault Junior Team of some sorts.
Nigel Albon's brothers(2 or 3?) were also racing simultaneously, their name appeared frequently in the British National racing scene in the 90's. They did Clio Cup, and some single seaters prior to that, if I remember correctly.
It was the nineties, but to run 3 cars or more in the British Clio Cup still required plenty of money.
Yes, surprised there was no mention of his father and how he was able to help his career.
Also the idea that going to jail for fraud makes you poor is completely ridiculous. He's two tiers too low, if not three.
Checo's dad became a politician in 2015, because of Checo's popularity.
Checo should have been in the bottom bracket. They really use Slim’s connection against him all the time 😂
i would probably put charles a little lower. the only reason he could afford to continue racing was because of Jules. His brother had to give it up because their family couldn't afford it.
Adam Norris' early retirement and the ways he made his money are incredibly sus to me. I simply can't fathom how you could make hundreds of millions of personal wealth in such a ludicrously short amount of time from fucking PENSIONS and be operating in good faith, not that pension funds cant make tonnes of money, just the optics of this guy becoming stinking rich when clearly people using their pensions weren't getting similarly endowed, just smells wrong.
He is buisnessman and still is (for instance his e scooters ) etc
I agree with you completely. These people are crooks. 1 Billion Pounds would give 1 Million Pounds to 1 THOUSAND Pensioners. That's enough money to see you through comfortably to the end of your days. Not to men I think the Government is bent and just as crooked as these crooks. How can the pension system allow one person to cream off one Billion of other peoples pensions investments?
2008 was simple government backed robbery
this is why fernando alonso is the greatest of all time
video actually starts at 5:17 seriously a 5 minute intro of pure yapp
Fr
Thanks
And it also has poor or almost no research at all
The section on Kevin Magnussen is also pretty much completely wrong.
His dad had 1.5 years in F1 yes, but he was also notoriously shit with money. He was able to pay for the first few years of Kevin's karting career, but even at that point they were never above middle class. Kevin was living in a small apartment in Roskilde with his mother and his carting career was only really possible because his uncle was his manager, mechanic, driver, pretty much everything (Jan was never home those years) completely for free.
Then when Kevin was suppose to move up to single seaters Jan didn't have the money for it and he actually had to stop his racing completely for 6 months, where he studied to be a welder, because he thought his racing career was over. It was only because he got outside backing that he was able to move into formula racing. He actually still owes millions to his backer to this day that he still havn't been able to completely pay off, even after 9 seasons in F1.
So putting him anywhere near drivers that come from families with big succesfull businesses simply doesn't make sense.
If Kmag is still in debt with his backers, I wonder how much money drivers in the lower teams actually make from their salaries.
I read a breakdown once for Indycar drivers and most where getting a couple of tenths per racing weekend. WITHOUT expenses, so advertising contracts and other sources of income do make a difference for them.
@@faultsy It varies wildly. But KMag has made a pretty good salary (around 5 million dollars a year) at Hass.
His debt was around 20 million dollars though, when it was at it's highest. He is lucky that his creditor is not really that focused on getting the money back, so he has just been paying at his own pace it seems.
As far as I know it is close to being payed out now. And we know all this since the debt is handled through KMags own company, that has public books as per Danish law.
@@Dragonpuncher123wow! Wouldn’t they want it back soon, given that his highest earning days are [almost] behind him?
@@shewasunderwhelmed His backer was the single riches man in Denmark (at least at the time, unsure about now) who seemed to just view it as something he had fun with. Wasn't even really expecting a return, but according to KMag's biography he takes paying the money back very seriously and he is almost done now. I think he is down to around 1-2 millions, so it could be payed out this year.
Alonso our working class hero
So basically he's the only F1 driver who ended on top on his own merit lol what a legend
The ultimate rags to riches story.
@@rickyspanish4792 The merit is then his parents enabling millions worth of external sponsorship. Not wealth itself, but funding ability. Out of 100 parents with talented kids, how many can do that? On average perhaps less than 1. A kid's personality/magnetism can make a lot of the difference to backers. A spoiled brat who picks fights might not do as well as an equally fast precious angel who sings the national anthem before every race, whether anyone listens or not.
@@Cloxxki yeah definitely. personality, commercial skills etc. is about as important as raw driving skill :) but these things are all merit to me, as in, not inherited wealth.
@@rickyspanish4792 Ocon too , but yes Alonso IS thé only one récent driver who won thé championship
Albon did mention in the interview that after the arrest of his mom, he had to find another source of backing to continue racing. The reason why he races under the Thai flag is because the backing he found was from a sponsorship program of a Thai company (ThaiBev) that was trying to promote Thais into international motorsport. He was half Thai so he took on that opportunity.
Little late to the video, but you actually got Checo wrong. He went through the Escuderia Telmex program to get them as his sponsors, not because of his father political ties, since his father started his political career in 2015, years after Checo made his F1 debut. He had to move to Germany when he was 14 years old, all alone and live in a restaurant where he worked as a kitchen aid. He barely spoke to his family the whole time because international calls were too expensive and they couln't really afford it. He came from very humble begginings and knowing hos whole story I'd definitley put him into the not comfortably middle class tier.
Yeah, the guy didn’t do his research. Well enough. 😢
Only one mother being discussed in detail and she went to prison.
Don't forget the undertaker.
and Max his mom was mentioned too
"We had to sell our house to finance his career"
It was just our 3rd summer home in Costa Rica, but still
As someone who is comfortably poor as fuck all these stories astonish me to be perfectly honest. LMAO
There is rich and then there is rich, but motorsports has always been and will always be something for people with money.
This list makes me appreciate Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen even more.
sainz should be piastri tier tbh, heard somewhere his dad is super rich
he is, literally the meme of Carlos having 19188 names its because he's family is very rich and then hus father becone even richer winning
Everyone in Spain has that many names if they can remember their grandparents surnames lol. @@pisderata
A small difference between Alonso and Ocon:
While Alonso's family didn't have the money for wet tyres, Ocon's family didn't have the 2 million to get through the junior ranks.
There is a difference between that.
Alonso's family didn't had even the money to allow Fernando race on international championships of karting. They kept forward thanks to the money prizes that Alonso managed to win with his victories in national races and championships, but that wasn't enough to keep going out of Spain. It was thanks to a man named Genís Marcó and his father, owner of a few kart circuits and kart teams, that bet for Fernando to promote his career, helping him and allowing him to continue developing racing on Europe. Without that help, that came after they watch Alonso's talent on display, Fernando wouldn't have any chance to even show to the world the kind of driver he is.
What do you say is just not true. Ocons Parents selled their home and drove in a motorhome around europe so Ocon could race. His dad was also his engineer
He even said this
@@LH_447 Those races throughout Europe are the junior program.
I am saying that Alonso's family was literally surviving on the pricemoney by Alonso, there was no money to go to other European races (until Genís Marcó).
That is way different than selling house and garage to buy a motorhome for touring throughout Europe.
Kimi's family home didn't even have an indoor toilet. I don't think we'll ever see drivers like Alonso, Kimi, and Mika anymore from very humble backgrounds.
Logan Sargeant would have been in the Stroll tier too, as his uncle sells oil to the US military
His uncle, not his dad. If he had won the F3 championship on his rookie year, he wouldn't have the money to go in F2. But he didn't, so he could stay in F3. Yes, he was not struggling given that he could finance F3 but that's not being a billionaire's kids too.
@@ramanjatonirinafarafehizor7421 He had an incredible title fight with Oscar piastri, are you suggesting he threw the championship because he didn't have the money to advance?
@@ramanjatonirinafarafehizor7421 he couldn't have continued on F3 either. He had even announced a move to sportscars due to a lack of funds, failing to have the money to stay in F3. That was shortly before Williams signed him on the young driver programme and slotted him directly in F2.
His family might be rich, but they sure weren't helping him THAT much.
Yeah but his uncle doesn’t fund him at all- in fact his dad and uncle aren’t even on speaking terms by most accounts
Funny how they always say, these are the best drivers in the world. It’s like, not really, these are the best driver’s out of the small group of people whose parents can actually afford to put them into racing. It reminds me of hearing the stat, that if you’re 7ft tall theirs a 25% chance you’re in the nba.
well it's a sport that skews towards the affluent and ultra-wealthy, no doubt about it. But you can see that it is possible for some guys not from that space to scrimp and pinch to get to F1. But F1's exclusivity is part of why it's so popular, if anyone could get in as long as they could drive it probably would've have the worldwide appeal that it does.
@@Jukeboxster Honestly I don’t see any truth to that theory. Probably 90% of the people who watch are not wealthy.
That’s true for a lot of sports though, even if you don’t need money to partake. There’s really only three or four sports that are truly sports for the masses (football, basketball, athletics, ?), all the rest are smaller sports where you can wonder if the topplayers really are the best in the world, or just the best of the limited group that practices that particular sport.
@@donaldvanvliet9039 But F1 takes it to the extreme. Even comparing apples to apples, nascar is much cheaper.
Gabriel Bortoleto who is a possible driver for Sauber/Audi next year is PRETTY rich too.
His father Lincoln Oliveira is one of the owners of the United Partners (investment fund) that controls the "Stock Car
series" in Brasil that generates annual profit of $1Bi+. He is the founder and CEO of Americanet, a telecomunication company in Brazil with more than 800 employees that has an annual revenue of $392.7M.
He is probably in the Norris/Bearman/Zhou Tier, ngl probably ahead of Norris.
Won’t be in Sauber
Forbes take note should be changed to 150M+
second one should be changed to15-100M Doohan should be there, Sainz most likely too.
very comfortable should be extended to 15M starting at 2, Perez could be tricky might even be a tier below, Leclerc should be bottom tier.
Add a new one 1-2M Ricardo should be there, yuki, Albon too or even one or two above.
and colapinto should probably also be in the lowest tier as he is from argentina and also had serious troubles...
Jos Verstappen wasn't really that well off during max his junior career. at one point he had to go 400k or so in debt for max to continue before red bull came in.
Didn't K-Mag have to quit racing and work in a factory for a while because he lacked funding? And Checo's father became a politician only after Checo became a successful F1 driver. And I agree with you about when F1 drivers say 'We had to sell our home.', 'We went through many struggles.' etc. while really just exaggerating, but yeah, they did struggle a lot to get where they are, even Lance and you cannot convince me otherwise. I enjoy this type of chill, kind of long content.
Did you guys actually know that Michael Schumacher was technically a pay driver as the reason he got to drive on his debut was because he payed 500k
He didn't a merc payed did😂
Schumacher didn't have money
Mercedes paid EJ $150k for Schumacher's debut drive, not 500k.
And Senna's family paid Ayrton's way thru his junior formulae career in Britain. That's the way it is in motorsport... no cash, no drive.
i googled the Revenue of the Hülkenberg Logitics company. The Net winnings of that were around 80-100k a year, so idk if his family is actually stacked tbh
Being from Mexico I can only comment on what I know about the mexican driver.
Checo's father became a politician recently, taking advantage on his own son's popularity already as an established F1 driver.
Before that he used to be the PR representative for Adrian Fernandez throughout his ChampCar career where he got close to the Slim family who supported Checo's earlier career.
With the value or the mexican peso and the lower cost of living I would put him at best in one of the two middle class categories at the time Checo entered F1.
I’ve seen Checo speak about having to look for sponsors and also his parents getting upset at him for calling to European teams since the phone bill was high. If I had 1-10 million dollars I wouldn’t be worried about the phone bill 😂
Let's make one thing clear: in junior formulas, EVERYBODY is a paying driver. You need to pay a lot of money to drive for PREMA or Hightech, or Carlin/Rodin...
I think the distinction is whether you're paying for those rides out of family money or an unrelated sponsor/benefactor.
Franco Colapinto is from middle argentinian class, so in european terms he is from a not at all comfortable class haha. His father sold his house to pay the last year he was racing before williams took him at their academy. Later in twitter he went viral in argentina asking for sponsors and the artist Bizarrap helped him. We -all the country- helped him find sponsors.
Verstappen mother's family was worth 1.4 billion euro when the grand father sold his civil engineering and construction business
But did Max Verstappen ever benefit from that money? I thought Jos Verstappen used his F1 earnings to coach Max (instead of having a paying job).
Just to add, Colapinto's father sold his house and bought a cheap house in the countryside and the whole family went to live there to be able to pay for his son's career This was said in a Spanish interview recently.
He got the Checo info wrong too.
cannot wait to have another chance to hate on lance stroll, thanks mr valencia street circuit
Mick Doohan is worth way more than 1M, he was earning 6m a year as 500 Honda World Champion. He has various business ventures, Fantastic home etc. Man was amazing and would have won more titles if not for horrendious injuries. Proper Legend.
You should do a who has the most backing sequel
That one is even harder to find out. Lots of the time backing is kept intentionally secret when certain companies don't want to be seen at picking favourites or associating with people from certain countries etc.
@@MrVsGarage you know you want to
I wouldn't really classify Ocon or Albon as working class. One had a family wealthy enough to own a house and sell it to fund his racing career and the other was rich at certain points of his early life. Neither are truly working class. Alonso is the only one I'd say that is actually working class from the moment he is born until he makes it to F1.
I know there's a lot of guessing in some cases, it would require a long time to do deep research. For example, Perez's father was a driver himself but never made real money in Mexico, so in his own words he was low middle class, didn't have the money for tyres, but he worked for some teams and made some connections, fast-forward Checo joined Escudería Telmex, Checo's junior career in Europe, at least the 3 first years, was with very limited funding, in the begginig he was staying at little room in a hostel with no family, not knowing the language, no money hahaha it was tough.
Checo was poor, but he has the backing of one of the wealthiest person in the world, Carlos Slim, who has supported economically since he was a child, Slim believed in the project of manufacturing an F1 driver since childhood because he's a huge F1 fan. But if you want to know who started the poorest driver, it's Checo, by far.
How about okon?
Ocon was always jealous of Checo cause of the Slim backing haha
Franco's dad is now a lawyer but back in the day he raced with moto and did some enduro and speedway, and franco said that the love of Motorsport came from being with his dad being a TC engineer which is an Argentinian racing series, I don't know how much might be that in dollars but they did had to risk it all when sending franco to italy alone. Nonetheless Franco is from Pilar which is a kind of wealthy place to live in Argentina
But yes is really hard to find information about his family, but Franco talked about it in a few programs he went to here in Argentina, hope this helps
btw, I love your videos sm ❤
So... for some context, a house equivalent to the one a wealthy person would be able to afford anywhere in the world is about 200k to 300k USD in Pilar... that is not much when you consider that the AVERAGE house in italy costs around €180k
Your average European would be filthy rich in Argentina. Renting a really nice house costs around 500usd/month and we talking multiple bathrooms, 3 rooms, living room, kitchen and dinning hall with garage and a backyard... So I doubt Colapinto's family house was able to finance anything beyond placing him on the spot during his F4 season, and nothing more than that, fortunately he won the championship and James Vowels noticed him kickstarting his career in the Williams Academy.
A good lawyer in a big firm here makes around 4000usd/month unless they work for the goverment or a huge firm or are just incredibly successful and make 2k more or so... that isn't enough to finance anything outside Argentina it wouldn't even be enough to go past the first tier of this poorly researched list even they would need to be billionaries in Argentina to be worth 1m pounds
Take a look at Sargeant's family, shit's NUTS!
Didn’t Lando’s dad pay around $40mil over a few years for Lando to be the sim driver and then reserve driver for McLaren? How is that not a pay driver?
That was never true he only paid for his f2 seat. But never paid for the McLaren seat.
20:21
$1 million in NZ is not GBP 1 million (its closer to 500k GBP)
looks like Mick Doohan Net Worth from motogp
He has an estimated net worth of $5 million that he gained after winning five consecutive 500 cc World Championships.
Doohan is now the go-to man if you want to buy a corporate jet in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and, perhaps soon, China. He also runs successful businesses providing aviation services, and has broad property and business investments. Yet if you'd seen him on a race weekend, way back when, you might not have chosen him as an ideal luncheon companion, let alone believed he could charm you into a $60 million Gulfstream G650. He would have said almost nothing, and given you a cold stare if you were an opponent or, perhaps worse, a journalist.
BTW, saying that Alonso had backing and Lewis comes from middle class.. Lewis was backed since he was 13 by McLaren, his dad did not have to pay a penny after that... So, Lewis had a TON of backing, if we want to go down that route...
I don't think that is relevant, even the poorest in the last two decades, Räikkönen had backing. He also had to live in a camper van while his parents were building a home, but also had to use outdoor toilet when he was a kid. They lived in the country side and it wasn't that uncommon back then. But he also had backing from very early on, and so did all of them... That is the one thing that is mandatory, you need sponsors from your first seasons onwards, someone to back you. You need to shine on your second season to get a career in F1, you need to attract a local backer who sees the potential.
Lots of those local companies never see return from their investment.. but companies are willing to sponsor a lot of things, i work in event organizing and getting sponsors is routine. They want to be seen in another context so while it rarely is worth it monetarily in the short run, they are not going to get a huge boost in sales but it can build enough reputation for being there for the community. And that can help in other things... like, people not raisin complaints when they want to build a new shop/factory etc.
bro he mentions backing just to point out that fernando wouldn't be able to continue racing if not for it. Obviously most of the drivers have backings but fernando wouldn't even be in junior categories out of Spain if not for the engineer who helped him. Alonso's biggest ambition was to be a karting mechanic ffs he didn't even dream of reaching f1
There should have been an "uncomfortably comfortable" category. Don't know where it would go in the tier list but it has a nice ring to it
Fernando Alonso is a unique case. He came from really humble beggings, his father built a go kart for his sister but she didn't like, so he inherited it at a really young age, didn't have any spare parts, limited tires etc as you said but he was spotted by the Campos family (who own nowadays the well established junior team) and got their backing, and finally could afford big chances at Formula Nissan and F1 thanks to Movistar backing, who at the time were the biggest telecom company in Spain.
Checo’s family could be in it the lowest not comfortable middle class . There are many documentaries and interviews where they tell the story of how they struggle in the karting eras for the three kids his sister Paola , his brother Toño an Checo . They all three were racing . The politician years started way later in 2015 when Checo was a know driver .
Sainz definately should be bumped up a teir, Magnussen down a tier
For franco colapinto, if you consider his family wealth relative to other Argentinian family the yes, he is comfortably middle class but his family for sure are worth less than £1m
hahaha, Jos Verstappen used all his money for divorces and struggled to finance Max's kart career.
It'll be below 1M and middle class, he actually moved to a standard house to be able to buy a camper van.
Checo's dad is mega loaded .... where do you get your info?
Yeah mexican politicians are always loaded doesn't matter which category theyre
100% correct Max had way more humble beginnings compared to Checo or any one in that tier TBH
Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Mika Häkkinen, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell are also notable examples from the past for champions who came from humble beginnings similar to Alonso btw.
People underestimate the number of financially average people who made it to the top of F1 racing.
FANGIO!!!
it may not have always been, but it is a rich boys sports now.
This ranking is so weird. Not only do we have no info whatsoever about 19 out of the 20 drivers' parents (we have good info about Stroll because Sportswear Holdings is on Pitchbook and their portfolio companies were publicly traded) but we also don't know if they rented their house, if they had a mortgage or paid it off/bought outright, don't know jack about their private investments or any possible inheritances, ownership structures of HPTuners for example, etc. Seems very arbitrary to have more than three categories that divide the wealth into "very rich", "fairly rich" and "average/not well off"
For example, insurance companies trade at approximately 1x EV/Sales (awful metric yes but the guy in the video only shared revenue and total assets of Aventum), meaning the entire business is worth 100 million pounds. Assuming 2/3 equity financing, that's 66 million equity value. Now I doubt Mr Bearman is the sole shareholder but even if he were this puts him nowhere near the 100 million club, showcasing just how arbitrary this ranking is without proper financials.
ANd last but not least "pay driver" never meant that the driver's parents can easily finance their son's racing career, it means the parents phyically pay their teams money so that they get the seat. Which neither Norris nor Bearman are even remotely close to.
Here in Australia, we're aware of how wealthy the Ricciardo family is. The Ricciardos are considerably richer than the Piastris.
Wrong Ricciardo family there’s 2 of them Daniel is from the non mega rich one
Its funny how both are Australians of Italian descent
Only in the West. I'm from Sydney and apart from Danny I've never heard of either family.
Is Ricciardo’s earthmoving bigger than HP Tuners?
not at all
Haven’t watched yet but purple should be the “Ocon” tier
*loud incorrect buzzer noise*
@@usahillo Oof
Guan Yu is actually quite a big name in China, taken from a famous historical character who was made even more famous by the most successful historical novel of all times (seriously, he's in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Calling your son Guan Yu in China is kinda like calling him Lionheart in the UK.
I love how f1 makes me feel like a dirty old pauper
Sargent should've been included. His dad was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but his uncle is a self-made multimillionaire
Isn't his uncle a billionaire? Both his uncle and his dad have been under fire for bribes, overinflated military contracts, etc.
His dad and his uncle don't speak and his uncle doesn't fund his racing.
@@walover165 correct
His dad is a multimillionaire, most definitely rich
excellently timed to get me through the last 30 mins of work
4:44 can afford British GP tickets as the 10-20M tier really got me 😂😂
Yes😂😂
Checo’s family didn’t had money, I’ll put him on the bottom bracket, his father worked on Adrian Fernandez racing team and in 2015 he became a politician, Checo fought his seat in Escudería Telmex with pure talent, and Telmex (Carlos Slim) has been backing him his hole career. I think he’s very admirable to be where hi is now.
alex's family is not poor??? and charles' family, before charles became successful, was not rich. same with george
I mean F1 as a whole is a sport made for the rich. Just comparing to other sports where you need a ball, a pole and little else, compared to a kart, a helmet, a specific place. If you are in the junior leagues, you have bread, thats it, doesn't matter if you have billions or millions or thousands, you have it. This isn't football, or basketball, or baseball or any of the sort. This is a rich sport for rich people, golf-style.
Could never make me hate Ocon
Daniel’s dad owns Ricciardo earthmoving. Definitely more than middle class. I lived 6-7 hours out of Perth growing up and remembering them doing some kind of major roadworks type stuff in a town close to me so I assume he is doing alright for himself.
that is only after daniel found success in f1. they couldn't afford it all back then and daniel did waitressing to earn money at 17 years old, living on his own in Italy
Yes a Business he started with the help of Daniel Mate !!!
@@Switll72 someone told me the business was about 30 years old my mistake
That's the wrong Ricciardo's, Kym Illman spoke about that on his channel once that people often mix them up, but they are two completely different families. Both Daniels father and the owner of Ricciardo earthmoving are named Joe Ricciardo, so I understand why they get mixed up.
@@randomchicken0490 Ricciardo earth moving is the company he owns. The other one is the different Joe Ricciardo
Sainz Sr. Networth is estimated at 50M$.... Sainz Jr needs to bump up a bit.
I don't know much about the cities of the UK, but it seems like whenever Hamilton talks about being a boy from Stevenage he makes it sound like it was some poor working class neighborhood.
not to bad, maybe im biased but Colopinto and Lawson id put in lower middle class. both had to work hard to secure funding but there familys didnt have much to put in. there talent is what got them to f1. NZ and Argentina are big sport nations so when they showed they have potential to be a future champion and make headlines there will be money to find somewhere. sadly i dont think Colopinto will be on the grid in 2025 but hopfuly hes in for 2026 and Lawson gets a promo to red bull when hes ready
Landos dad also brokered the engine deal when McLaren went from Honda to Mercedes via Horatio Investments (his company)
I can't remember if the potential partnership is why Lando got into the junior program or if Lando being in the program helped spark the partnership, but yeah.
Leclercs grandfather is also Charles Manni, a billionaire. Charles' parents aren't uber wealthy, but his family is.
Might have to put Yuki & Liam between the last 2 teirs cause they weren't comfortably middle class but weren't uncomfortably poor.
Same for Gasly
A thing about Kmag. His younger brother is currently doing karting, trying to become an f1 driver. There is a danish documentary about them where you see them trying to scrape together sponsorships and so on.
Of course Jan Magnussen is now retired so maybe doesnt have the same amount of money as he did when Kevin was a child but I don't think they were suuper wealthy.
You didn't do your homework on Mick Doohan. He did a lot of property investment while racing, and then opened a private charter air service. You could bump Jack up a category
A family friend is or was friends with Fernando's family. Can confirm they were not well off. They probably didn't struggle at all, but they made massive efforts to put him through the karting tiers. He also comes from the relative middle of nowhere in Spain, so any connection must have been very very weak compared to others in the list.
I think you're bang on with most of these. Sainz Sr could definitely afford the best British GP tickets (im guessing 20-50m net worth with career earnings, investments, and whatnot). Riccardo's family is definitely in the very comfortable tier, and I guess despite Albon's mom's financial crimes was still comfortably middle-class. And if Sargeant was still in F1, he'd also be Stroll tier