Residences of F1 drivers: Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz nationalists

Residences of F1 drivers: Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz nationalists. Residences of F1 drivers.

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc | Monaco Track Tour 2021 Ferrari Portofino M - YouTube

While the 2021 Formula 1 world championship continues with the development of its second half, one of the most interesting curiosities at an extra-sporting level about the drivers involved in this season concerns the countries of residence. As has often happened in the course of history, also in this period the great majority of the twenty participants in the world championship are registered in the small and rich Principality of Monaco, with seven drivers residing in the country where the most glamorous Grand Prix on the calendar is held.

However, if we exclude the case of Charles Leclerc – who lives there being his native country – the number of foreigners who have chosen the Principality as their home thus drops to six, exactly the same figure that welcomes another country such as Switzerland. By doing so, the Ferrari Monegasque driver therefore sets the ideal conditions for setting up a real derby between the two nations.

A challenge, among other things, made possible also by the destinations chosen by all the other drivers on the grid. These, instead of residing abroad or in a tax-free country, have in fact kept faith with their origins by remaining within their own borders. This is the case of the two Spaniards Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, followed by two other British drivers (Lando Norris and George Russell), without forgetting the extra-European residences of Nicolas Latifi in Canada and Yuki Tsunoda in Japan.

An exception, in this sense, is the choice of the AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, the only one who has decided not only to reside in a country other than that of his birth – France – but also to identify Italy as his home. A curiosity that does not exclude the Italian flag from this special list thanks to the driver who, exactly in Italy, won his first and only career Grand Prix in 2020.