Where famous racing drivers grew up and lived
Explore the homes and neighbourhoods of 8 famous racing drivers, and how each place shaped the person they became.
Ayrton Senna1960–1984
📍 Rua Condessa Siciliano 528, Jardim São Paulo, São Paulo 02040-001, Brazil
I grew up in the Santana neighbourhood of São Paulo, in a comfortable upper-middle-class family — my father Milton was a successful businessman — and the contrast between my privileged…
Bruce McLaren1937–1958
📍 Upland Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050, New Zealand
I grew up above my father's service station and garage on Upland Road in Remuera, Auckland. My father, Les, had driven petrol tankers before buying the business in 1936, and he was also a…
Burt Munro1920–1978
📍 Bainfield Road, Invercargill 9810, New Zealand
I spent my life in a little shed in Invercargill, at the bottom of the world, with a 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle and an impossible idea. For decades I tinkered in that cramped workshop …
Juan Manuel Fangio1911–1938
📍 Balcarce, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
I was born in Balcarce, a small town in the rolling farmland of Buenos Aires Province, in June 1911, the fourth of six children of Italian immigrants. My grandfather, Giuseppe, had come…
Lewis Hamilton1985–2002
📍 Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK
Lewis Hamilton was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in January 1985, and grew up in this post-war new town north of London, with its housing estates, roundabouts and pedestrianised centre…
Max Verstappen1997–2014
📍 Maaseik, Limburg, Belgium
Max Verstappen was born in Hasselt, Belgium, in September 1997, into a racing family. His father, Jos, is a Dutch former Formula One driver, and his mother, Sophie Kumpen, a Belgian kart…
Michael Schumacher1969–1987
📍 Kerpen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Michael Schumacher was born in Hürth, near Cologne, in January 1969 and grew up in Kerpen-Manheim, a small working-class village in the flat farmland and brown-coal mining country west of…
Niki Lauda1949–1968
📍 Vienna, Austria
I was born in Vienna in February 1949 into a wealthy, old Viennese family of industrialists. My grandfather, Hans Lauda, had built a paper-manufacturing empire and was a powerful figure in…