Formula 1 drivers spend their lives behind the wheels of the fastest, most high-tech cars on the planet, and many bring that obsession home.
While a few, like Lance Stroll, aren’t as interested in road cars, most invest their massive paychecks in jaw-dropping collections. Expect supercars, hypercars, and even jaw-dropping classics that fetch millions at auction. Some of the most insane garages belong to seasoned F1 veterans, but a few surprises come from younger drivers you wouldn’t expect.
When they’re not racing some of the world’s fastest machines for a living, these are the cars these F1 stars pick for the roads.
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Owned by Fernando Alonso & Max Verstappen
When it comes to road-legal hypercars, there aren’t many that are more advanced and impressive than the Aston Martin Valkyrie. This car was co-designed by legendary Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey, during a period when Aston Martin had a strong working relationship with Newey’s former employer, Red Bull Racing. As a result, the Valkyrie’s design is full of F1-inspired touches that are meant to improve the aerodynamics and glue it to the road as much as possible.
The high-tech nature of the Valkyrie continues on into the powertrain. The Valkyrie is a hybrid, powered by a combination of a 6.5-liter naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 producing 1,000 hp and an electric motor producing a further 160 hp. The hybrid system allows it to have a KERS-style electric power boost, similar to what F1 drivers have had since the late 2000s.
Several current and former Formula 1 drivers are believed to own an example of the Aston Martin Valkyrie. The one we have the most evidence for is 2-time World Champion Fernando Alonso. He’s been spotted driving his Valkyrie through Monaco multiple times and has shared pictures of it on his Instagram account. His one is in a classic British Racing Green-style colour, and it looks very classy! Another known owner of the Valkyrie is four-time World Champion Max Verstappen. A video of him driving his Valkyrie through the tunnels near Monaco has been widely shared on the internet. Verstappen actually helped develop the car, so it’s not surprising that he had a build slot reserved for him.
Aston Martin Valiant
Owned by Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin Valiant front 3-4 view from low angle
Aston Martin
The Valkyrie isn’t the only ultra-cool cool limited-run Aston Martin that’s shown up in the last few years. There’s also the Aston Martin Valiant, a very special supercar with a very cool backstory. It’s based on the Aston Martin Valour, another limited-run supercar for Aston Martin’s most exclusive customers. The Valiant takes the Valour’s base and makes it rawer and more track-focused. The Valiant shares the Valour’s 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged V12, but its power output has been given a bump up to 735 bhp. It still produces the same amount of torque as the Valour, at 555 lb-ft.
It also has the same Graziano 6-speed manual as the Valour. The main difference with the Valiant is its lighter weight (thanks to the use of an all-carbon fibre body and other lighter-weight components such as magnesium wheels, a 3D-printed rear subframe and a titanium exhaust), more aggressive aerodynamics and the addition of more track-specific parts (such as a roll cage and carbon ceramic brakes).
Why does the Valiant exist? Well, it was because of a special request by Fernando Alonso. He loved the Valour, but he wanted something that was more hardcore. As Fernando Alonso is one of Aston Martin’s Formula 1 drivers and one of its most prominent brand ambassadors as a result, it was more than happy to humour his request.
Alonso has officially shown off his own Valiant in Monaco. Unlike quite a few other people who’ve got Valiants, Alonso’s own one is in a very understated spec. While the colour and details may not look as outlandish as Gordon Ramsay’s one, for example, there’s still no denying that it’s an incredibly striking car. The Valiant will forever be remembered as one of the coolest cars Aston Martin has ever made, and it all started because of this legendary F1 driver making a special request!
Ferrari LaFerrari
Owned by Fernando Alonso & Lewis Hamilton
Front action shot of a 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari
Ferrari
The Ferrari LaFerrari is one of the most desirable hypercars ever made. A member of the Holy Trinity alongside the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder, the LaFerrari was the most technologically advanced Ferrari road car of its day. It was Ferrari’s first hybrid, with a 6.3-liter V12 hooked up to an electric motor that could give it an F1-style KERS boost. That hybrid system produced a total of 950 hp, and all that power went to the rear wheels through a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton both own examples of the LaFerrari. ExoticCarspotters spotter Alonso getting into his black example in Monaco a couple of years ago, and Effspot stumbled across Hamilton giving Justin Bieber a ride around Los Angeles in his red example. Considering both these drivers have now spent a bit of time at Ferrari, it’s not surprising that they own examples of one of the coolest and most desirable Ferraris in the world.
Ferrari 599 GTB 60F1 Fernando Alonso Edition
Owned by Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin wasn’t the only car manufacturer to build a special model for Fernando Alonso. A long time before the Aston Martin Valiant came along, Ferrari created a special edition of the 599 GTB Fiorano, both to celebrate Alonso and 60 years of Ferrari’s F1 dominance.
This version is known as the 599 GTB 60F1 Fernando Alonso Edition. It’s based on the HGTE chassis, which was an upgrade that improved the 599’s handling. It has the same 6.0-liter V12 as the regular 599, producing 610 hp and 448 lb-ft of torque. The only real difference between this and a regular 599 GTB with the HGTE chassis, then, is the special paint job.
There haven’t been any photos of Alonso’s example in recent years. One video of somebody spotting it at the 2013 British Grand Prix did emerge some years ago, but nothing else has. Alonso’s example is a British-registered one in right-hand drive. While that might seem odd (Alonso is a Monaco resident), it does align with some reports that suggest he owns a home in Oxfordshire, England. If he does, it wouldn’t be out of the question that he keeps a couple of right-hand drive cars there to use when he’s in Britain.
Lamborghini Miura
Owned by Lando Norris
Since hitting the big time in Formula 1 and moving to Monaco, Lando Norris has been building up a very cool car collection. While he doesn’t have as many cars in his garage as some of the other drivers on the grid, what he does own is possibly some of the coolest machines any current driver has. One of the cars he’s bought more recently is a Lamborghini Miura. He’s been spotted driving his Miura quite a few times, including in Monaco around a year ago. Norris’s Miura is in a tasteful dark blue colour and has a very orange interior – two colors that pair surprisingly very well.
The Miura was Lamborghini’s first out-and-out supercar, and was supposed to be its first proper rival to the sports cars Ferrari was producing at the time. It was powered by a 3.9-liter V12 that, depending on which version of the Miura you had, produced anything from 345 to 380 hp. This drove the rear wheels through a 5-speed manual transmission. Its power isn’t the reason why it’s famous, though. That’s down to the gorgeous styling by Marcello Gandini that was revolutionary for the time and still looks great now.
McLaren F1
Owned by Lewis Hamilton
Mclaren F1
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton was McLaren’s star driver for many years. Ron Dennis took him under his wing back when he was still in his junior days, and he stayed with them right up until departing for Mercedes after the 2012 season. He’s still one of the most successful McLaren drivers in recent years too, being the last driver to win a driver’s championship for the team (Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri could have something to say about that soon!). So, it only seems fitting that he would have an example of the most famous and revered McLaren road car of all, the McLaren F1.
Designed by Gordon Murray to be the best road-going sports car anyone could possibly make at the time, the McLaren F1 has a 6.1-liter BMW-sourced V12 that produces 618 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque. All that power goes to the rear wheels through a 6-speed manual transmission. It also has one of the coolest and most unusual cabin layouts ever. The F1 seats 3 people with the driver in the centre and slightly ahead of the two passengers. This was supposed to give the driver an ergonomically perfect driving position, as well as better visibility.
Hamilton’s example is chassis #44 (the same number that he races with), and he bought it for nearly $16 million at a Bonhams auction in 2017. It resides at his Los Angeles home, and he’s sometimes been seen driving it when he’s about in the area.
McLaren P1
Owned by Lewis Hamilton
1,900-Mile 2014 McLaren P1
Bring a Trailer
Lewis Hamilton is part of a very elite club of McLaren owners. Not only does he own a McLaren F1, but he also owns an example of the McLaren P1. Some people consider the P1 to be the true spiritual successor to the F1, and it’s not hard to see why. This was the best road car McLaren could possibly make for the early-mid 2010s. Powered by a combination of a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and an electric motor, the McLaren P1 produces 903 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque. That’s still an incredible amount of power today, so you can only imagine what it must have felt like over 10 years ago.
Hamilton’s P1 is kept at his primary residence in Monaco, and it’s been seen many times by people who have been in the area when he’s at home. It’s perhaps got one of the nicest specifications of any of the P1s that have been built, being a marine blue colour with black wheels.
While Hamilton hasn’t raced for McLaren for a very long time, it’s still cool to know that he still loves the brand so much that he’s paid a lot of money to have two of its most desirable road cars. Could he be on the list for the new McLaren W1, too? We might just have to wait and see…
Mercedes-AMG One
Owned by George Russell
The Mercedes-AMG One is without a doubt one of the most complicated road cars ever made. It packs as much Formula 1-inspired tech into a road-legal hypercar. That includes the powertrain, which is so similar to the Mercedes F1 cars that it’s actually built at the same factory in Brixworth, England.
There are multiple current and former F1 drivers who are known to have an AMG One. The one we’ve seen the most pictures of is the black example owned by George Russell. He took it with him to this year’s British Grand Prix, and it drew a lot of attention. Former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer even took a cheeky selfie with it.
Considering how the AMG One is a very specialized hypercar with massive maintenance costs that most owners will just tuck away in a heated garage most of the time, it’s really cool to see that Russell is actually using his one. Lewis Hamilton is also known to have had one reserved for him (he even told Top Gear that he wanted Mercedes to build him a special “LH” edition), and former F1 driver (and former teammate of Hamilton!) Nico Rosberg has one too.
Porsche Carrera GT
Owned by Lando Norris
You might have thought that owning a Lamborghini Miura was as cool as it gets with Lando Norris’s car collection. But, he’s somehow managed to even one-up that! Another car he’s acquired since moving to Monaco and earning that big-time F1 driver money is the Porsche Carrera GT. This is often regarded as one of Porsche’s best cars ever, and the last hurrah for the truly analogue supercar. It has a 5.7-liter V10 that was originally designed to go racing, paired up with a proper 6-speed manual transmission. That V10 also produces 603 hp and 435 lb-ft of torque.
Norris’s example is in a very tasteful dark green colour, and he has been spotted driving it around in Monaco. While it does look oddly unspectacular compared to the other cars you might typically see in Monaco, it’ll probably be a much more awesome driving experience than any of those other cars it mills around with.
Shelby Cobra
Owned by Lewis Hamilton
The coolest car Lewis Hamilton owns isn’t the fastest or the most technologically advanced. It’s actually one (or rather, two) of his classic cars. Hamilton owns several proper classics, and the best of those are easily his pair of original 1960s Shelby Cobras. The one pictured above in his social media post is his 1966 427 Cobra, which has a 7.0-liter “side-oiler” Ford V8 producing 425 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque.
These engines aren’t too far removed from the ones Ford used in the Galaxie for NASCAR and the GT40 for Sports Car racing, so Sir Lewis has some serious power at his disposal! Hamilton’s Cobras are both the real deal – Carroll Shelby himself even confirmed that one of them was legit before he passed away.