Drivers top the rich list

Motor racing dominated the annual Sunday Times Sport Rich List, the guide to the wealthiest figures in British sport.

Ten of the top 15 come from motor sport, but the ten who make the grade are not as obvious as they might seem.

McLaren team-mates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton come in at 10th and 14th, with Button worth as estimated £40 million, proving his gamble on taking a pay cut to stay at Brawn last season was a brilliant financial and career move. His £6 million annual salary will help boost his value.

Hamilton has a five-year contract worth an estimated £75 million plus high-income endorsements which Sports Illustrated valued at £18.7 million per annum. "Money doesn't really appeal, " he once said. His decision to ditch Britain and live in tax-friendly Switzerland has only helped his worth.

Top of the ten, and third overall, is John Colum Crichton-Stuart, Earl of Dumfries, known commonly as Johnny Bute but even better known as former racing driver Johnny Dumfries. His £110 million estate was inherited, and his F1 exploits only served to dent its worth.

Eddie Irvine is in fifth at £80 million thanks to shrewd property investment of the £40 million he earned in his F1 career. He owns a sports complex in Bangor and an Irish paper importing company.

One place lower is South African Jody Scheckter, who now lives in Hampshire, and who made his money selling a company he had built up providing hardware for weapons training in the USA. He is now an organic farmer worth an estimated £60 million.

Seventh is Dave Richards, who made his £58 million fortune in automotive engineering consultancy and also dabbled in F1 with Benetton and BAR. In 2007 he led a consortium which took over Aston Martin.

In eighth is F1 driver turned pundit David Coulthard, but he earned more from selling his 70% stake in the Colombus hotel in Monaco than he did in his racing career. He is worth around £50 million. He is tied with Nigel Mansell, who earned £45 million from his racing career and another £14 million from the sale of a country club

Sir Jackie Stewart is in 11th. His income while driving was substantial by the standards of the day, but not now. Nevertheless, shrewd investments and the sale of the Stewart Racing Team to Ford for around £50 million helped him to an estimated value of £41 million.

Languishing in 14th with a paltry £36 million is the relatively unknown outside the USA Dario Franchitti who made a name for himself in IndyCar and NASCAR. Married to actress Ashley Judd, he also has substantial property investments.

Further down the field is Jonathan Palmer (17th= £33m) , Damon Hill (35th= £30m), and IndyCar star Dan Wheldon from Buckinghamshire ( 81st= £10m).

To put all this in perspective, Michael Schumacher is estimated to be worth £515 million




LS's Tip of the week
ESSENTIAL OILS aren't essential unless you're an engine, a gearbox or a twat

Nice work if you can get it.

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"Top of the ten, and third overall, is John Colum Crichton-Stuart, Earl of Dumfries, known commonly as Johnny Bute but even better known as former racing driver Johnny Dumfries. His £110 million estate was inherited, and his F1 exploits only served to dent its worth."

If I was of "true royal" instead of "bastard royal" blood I'd also waste hard-earned tax payer money to support my unrealistic lifestyle. It still baffles me how so many countries, especially England, royal families exist and are so wealthy despite all of us knowing they got their royal title from some religious bull****.

Because, at least in the UK, overall the country makes a profit. Amazingly people still come to the UK on holiday and the Royal Family is a major tourist attraction. I find it baffling, but it is a fact that cannot be denied. The Americans seem to be the ones most obsessed with it.

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I do believe the royals pay tax now, and they own enterprises that make a profit, pay taxes and provide jobs. On another note, according to GLP, the Reptilian shape-shifting Queen still owns and runs America, perhaps that would explain the fascination.

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Because, at least in the UK, overall the country
> makes a profit. Amazingly people still come to the
> UK on holiday and the Royal Family is a major
> tourist attraction. I find it baffling, but it is
> a fact that cannot be denied. The Americans seem
> to be the ones most obsessed with it.


I was in London in 2001 and walked up to Buckingham Palace, just the day after Jackie Stewart was knighted though! The band was playing that Soul Bossa Nova song by Quincy Jones, it was very cool :P. Good to see they pay taxes now but it still won't make up for all the incredible privileges.

That list shows too how much money there is to be made when you don't have to run an entire business, cost-benefit sides with just driving.

I take it all back. Prince Andrew

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if it were me at the wheel, an "accidental" oversteer would occur, crashing rear first.

Quote
Guimengo
if it were me at the wheel, an "accidental" oversteer would occur, crashing rear first.

There's nothing to crash into any more.

I hate the royal family. Such a hard life having your entire care paid for while your duty to the nation is to turn up at an event once a month to utter the words "I now declare this lavatory open" and then piss off back to your 60 acre estate to ride your horses and gorge yourself on food prepared by some chef.

They should be made to actually work a bit. To show a degree of effort. Not just turn up in Afghanistan once every 6 months to 'boost moral' for the forces... on that note, how the hell does that work? You turn up, having done @#$%& all, do @#$%& all, and just by your very presence, people magically become more efficient?

DaveEllis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Because, at least in the UK, overall the country
> makes a profit. Amazingly people still come to the
> UK on holiday and the Royal Family is a major
> tourist attraction. I find it baffling, but it is
> a fact that cannot be denied. The Americans seem
> to be the ones most obsessed with it.

It is the same here in Denmark. The Americans are obsessed with it, because they simply don't have a history. When they walk all the old Roman cities and medieval castles flat, you can just see how they glow green with envy.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Does the royal family pay tax, or at least tax on their property?

mortal Wrote:
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> the Reptilian shape-shifting Queen still owns and
> runs America, perhaps that would explain the
> fascination.


well informed, mal

matt

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > if it were me at the wheel, an "accidental"
> oversteer would occur, crashing rear first.
>
>
> There's nothing to crash into any more.
>
> I hate the royal family. Such a hard life having
> your entire care paid for while your duty to the
> nation is to turn up at an event once a month to
> utter the words "I now declare this lavatory open"
> and then piss off back to your 60 acre estate to
> ride your horses and gorge yourself on food
> prepared by some chef.
>
> They should be made to actually work a bit. To
> show a degree of effort. Not just turn up in
> Afghanistan once every 6 months to 'boost moral'
> for the forces... on that note, how the hell does
> that work? You turn up, having done @#$%& all, do
> @#$%& all, and just by your very presence, people
> magically become more efficient?

The royal family is an institution that has existed for a thousand years. Some people buy into that significance I guess. "Hey I met the Queen" will be pretty big for some people. Or of course for others it will mean **** all except that its likely that if they're meeting the Queen they're not actually on the front-line that day.

Remember though that most members of the royal family serve in the armed forces as well - Prince Harry probably should still be out in Afghanistan except that for some reason it's been decided by someone else that we couldn't possibly risk his life like that. Bollocks! There were no qualms about the future King George VI taking part in the Battle of Jutland; Harry should never have been brought home. Shouldn't have had bloody tabloids - irrespective of origin - trying to expose his position either.

This might sound like a rant - basically all I'm saying is that I've always preferred the Royals as the lesser of two evils. What's the alternative? A man like Gordon Brown for Head of State and head of the armed forces? No bloody thank you!

Anyway, that's by-the-by. So, how about that Schumacher?
Seriously though, is that 500+ million fortune just down to his racing career. What else does he do?

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hate the royal family. Such a hard life having
> your entire care paid for while your duty to the
> nation is to turn up at an event once a month to
> utter the words "I now declare this lavatory open"
> and then piss off back to your 60 acre estate to
> ride your horses and gorge yourself on food
> prepared by some chef.
>
> They should be made to actually work a bit. To
> show a degree of effort. Not just turn up in
> Afghanistan once every 6 months to 'boost moral'
> for the forces... on that note, how the hell does
> that work? You turn up, having done @#$%& all, do
> @#$%& all, and just by your very presence, people
> magically become more efficient?

Reminds me of Mock The Week, and of course Frankie Boyle. They were discussing the Queen going on holiday, to which Frankie said "How does the Queen know when she's on holiday? She doesn't f**king do anything!"

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zulu_85, I'm not against the Royal family as such, I just wish they'd do something instead of sitting around on their arse waiting for their second birthday. Their only use is to draw in Americans into London. As such, the economy is boosted around that area, but it's a sad state of affairs when your primary draw is for some gawping colonial drowning in their own drool in a London Eye capsule because they can see a gap in the trees where Buckinghaaaam Palace ought to be in the distance.

As to the work they do? This is the diary for Prince Charles for the rest of this week, according to his own site.

Friday: Present flying badges to students in Hampshire.
Saturday: Attend a ceremony in London.
Sunday: Attend another ceremony in London.

It doesn't take an awful lot of effort, does it?

Nah, I mean I'm not going to argue about the value of the Royals; I will agree that the life of a royal is one of unequalled luxury and more-over privilege. I'm sure the royals do *something* to fill their days though it may not seem much to us commoners. My deposition towards the Monarchy is based somewhat on my general distrust/disgust of politicians in the UK though. If we were to become a Republic - and I'd imagine it would probably be a Federation of Constituent Republics if we're going that far and still want to hang on to Scotland etc - I would only consider supporting the creation of a ceremonial President, kinda like in Germany I guess.

Actually, the Queen is quite possibly the most active member of the Royal Family. She attends about 800 engagements a year, and she does meet a lot of members of the public.

[Website]

Sweet, she does all that. That must be worth more than the minimum wage the rest of the country enjoy!

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The Queen attends 2 engagements a day?

So far as I can see it's "sending a message" every week or 2 with the odd actual attendance in between.

If I'm honest, I'd swap.

As useless as they are, I guess they do more than the family in Monaco. All that happened there was F1. Grace Kelly got so bored of doing nothing she took classes on how to make portraits out of flower petals, and then have expos of it. Which, thinking about it, seems to be far more than her kids ever did and will do.