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Writer's pictureGiles Gunning

Classic Cars of The F1 Grid

Updated: Jul 10, 2023

On a Sunday an F1 driver could be sending it down the Hangar Straight at Silverstone at 300 km/h but what are those drivers and Team Principal's driving come Monday?


Well, we've pulled together those current drivers and Team Principal's who've got a classic or two in the garage.


Let's jump in.



Lando Norris

The first car Lando Norris bought with his own hard-earned money was a classic - the iconic Fiat 500 Jolly.


“It’s the first actual car that I’ve paid for with money that I earned. And this is where I thought I would spend it,” said Norris.


“But it’s one of the coolest cars you’ll ever get. It’s 15 horsepower, so it’s maybe also the slowest car I think I could possibly ever buy. But I think that’s why I love it so much” added Norris.


The Fiat Jolly was designed for those wealthy seaside dwellers who wanted something fun to go to the shops or pop to the yacht. Jolly's are based upon either a Fiat 500 or 600 with most of the top half of the car chopped off, a fabric top, trimmed down windshield and open body sides encasing delightful wicker seats.


If you're in the market Fiat 500 Jolly prices average £59,000 - check out the full price guide here. Replicas and conversion are commonplace so make sure you know what you're buying.



Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo has one of the bigger collections when it comes to modern F1 drivers, the majority of which are modern supercars. However, he did reveal in a podcast that he had purchased a Ferrari 275 GTS.


The 275 GTS was the replacement for the 250 GT Cabriolet and the 250 California Spyder models that had finished production in 1962 and 1963 respectively. Between 1964 and 1966, only 200 examples in total were built.




Valtteri Bottas

It's rumoured Bottas has an Ferrari F40 under his ownership although the specifics are vague.


The F40 succeeded the 288 GTO and was designed to celebrate Ferrari's 40th anniversary.


Ferrari went big in all senses of the word.


At the time it was Ferrari's fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car for sale.


They went big on production too, despite planning to build only 400 units, production topped out at over 1,300.





Toto Wolff

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing | Source: Toto Wolff
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing | Source: Toto Wolff

Mercedes' supremo has an extensive collection which up until recently included a Ferrari Enzo and a LaFerrari. However, when you've been running Mercedes F1 since 2013 having a few Ferrari's in the garage brings about some uncomfortable conversations.


That's perhaps why last year Toto put his Enzo and LaFerrari up for sale with Tom Hartley Junior, alongside his SL65 AMG Black Series. Toto publicly put it down to having a lack of time to enjoy the cars.


However, he makes time to drive his 300 SL Gullwing, regularly being seen in Monaco driving it.


Toto's business acumen has long been understood, and the purchase of this car seems to be another shrewd move - prices have doubled in the past 10 years. Check out the full price guide here.



Christian Horner

Red Bull's long term Team Principal treated himself to a present for his 40th, it wasn't some lovely jumper he's been lusting after for a few months, but rather an Aston Martin DB5.


Aston's iconic DB5, made into legend by James Bond, and even made into a postage stamp by the Royal Mail in 2013, was most commonly seen in coupe form, but available as a convertible and even extremely rare shooting brake form.





Zak Brown

The McLaren Racing CEO has a collection bigger than any other Team Principal, arguably in history. And whilst we could talk about his Porsche 962, his Cobra 289 or his F50, we're going to focus on his 959.


The 959 started life as a Group B rally car before being homologated for road use to meet the FIA regulations.


Once it did hit the road, it broke records.


The 959 was the world's fastest street-legal production car with speeds hitting 197mph, with some variants reaching 211mph.


In an interview with Autocar, Zak explained: “Mine has been restored by Californian ex-racing driver Bruce Canepa. Bruce was the importer who made the cars road legal when they first came to the US. And Porsche is the only manufacturer I’ve come across that would actually suggest you take one of their iconic cars to somewhere other than their own place. Bruce has done three generations of the 959. I’ve got the most recent generation and it’s a gorgeous-looking car. It’s understated. If you know about cars, you definitely know what a 959 is, but if you’re not a big car enthusiast and you don’t know what you’re looking at, it kind of looks like a Porsche 911, and kind of like the Speedtail but from a different generation. It’s very easy to drive – just like a 911 until you put your foot down. A four-wheel-drive, circa-800-horsepower monster that is very much an easy daily driver.”


Today, a 959 is a £1.3m car, 10 years ago prices were a third of that. Quite the investment.


There we are 3 drivers, 3 Team Principals - 6 classic cars.


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