It’s coming up to the end of high school for many readers, reader parents and reader parole officers.
It’s a tough climate to get a job. Your career advisers are going to tell you to play it safe and get a job in an investment bank where, if you rise up to become a trader, you can take home four or five big ones a year and, according to all reports, have a better time than the Wolf of Wall Street. Or study for 10 years, have no life, become a doctor and take home $120,000 with overtime. Or become a plumber and make twice what a lawyer makes.
But forget all that and listen to your Uncle John. Imagine getting paid $3 million for just taking one of the world’s quickest cars out for a Sunday drive. Yes, as usual your parents and parole officers know nothing. Become an F1 driver and have it all. You only work 22 Sundays a year, travel to exotic international locations like Melbourne and Baku, have champagne poured on you and blue with team bosses (aka surrogate fathers).
Like many of us Seb Vettel was terrible at school. But that hasn’t stopped him being paid $65m a year plus bonuses. Fred Alonso dropped out of school but he still gets paid $52m a year including bonuses.
Lew Hamilton’s father paid for his racing career on the basis that he stayed at school. At one stage Tony Hamilton worked three jobs to help the King of Bling keep racing. Once Lew started making real money he fired his father. Despite that, Lew is worth about $200m and Mercedes pay him $40m a year plus bonuses. Our own Perth boy, Danny Ricciardo gets $7m but can expect a lot more when his contract runs out.
OK, now we’ve fixed what you’re doing with the rest of your life, let’s look at last Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Remember how at Baku (you know, the cultural and excitement capital of Azerbaijan) Mercedes team bosses refused to give Lew help when his engine lost power? Well strangely enough at Silverstone last week they did help teammate Nico Rosberg ($20m a year) when he had a gearbox problem. Of course it cost Nico 10 seconds and probably the world championship but, hey, we Germans have to look after each other.
So Hamilton has become the most successful driver at Silverstone and is only a few points behind Rosberg for the championship despite nearly colliding with the safety car. Is Hamo the best wet weather driver in the world? Probably.
He is also probably the best driver of his generation. While there are always three or four dominant drivers, one always sits above the rest: Fangio, Senna, Schumacher and Vettel. Now it’s Hamilton and the next could be Max Verstappen.
If you want to indulge in a late upper-class fantasy see Rob Myers at Pebble Beach next month. His outfit, RM Sothebys, is selling the greatest road-going Maserati ever built. The Fiat-owned brand handbuilt only 50 examples and raced a couple of them in the GT and GT1 World Championship series, winning five consecutive team championships. Maserati won the Manufacturer’s Cup in 2005 and 2007 and six Drivers’ Championships, four in the FIA GT Championship from 2006 to 2009, one for the 2006 Italian GT Championship, and another in the newly formed FIA GT1 class in 2010.
One owner with less than 10,000km, this Maser comes complete with a 470kw, 5,998cc DOHC 65-degree V-12 engine with a six-speed Cambriocorsa paddle-shift transmission.
Maseratis are what you buy when you can’t afford a Ferrari, but the 2005 MC12s are as good if not better than any of Enzo’s supercars, including the Enzo (which he never put on the racetrack) but at a lower price point.
If the MC12 is a bit rich, pop over to Dave Gooding’s auction where Dave is offering nine Maseratis, some as low as $350,000. For older readers or younger readers with impeccable taste put in a bid for Liz Taylor’s (she used to be a famous actperson) 1962 Maserati 3500 GT. Liz didn’t drive it much and onsold it to another actor, Anthony Quinn, who sold it to someone you’ve never heard of. You’ll get this for one $420,000.
This is a shortened version of the original article. Read the rest at The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/careering-in-supercars-with-lewis-hamilton-and-liz-taylor/news-story/ad5ee8175425603ed38849345c63e81f
