Fourteen drivers on the current Formula One grid live within the two square kilometres of Monaco, drawn by a tax regime that charges no income, wealth, capital gains or inheritance tax. For a driver earning £8m a year, that arrangement can be worth several million pounds annually — and, over a career, tens of millions more.
▶ Watch the full video below: The Motion Report →
The Appeal: Tax, Location and Security
Monaco’s position, 15 minutes from Nice airport and two hours from most European circuits, allows drivers to sleep in their own beds before a race weekend. Strict laws requiring photographers to obtain written government permission, combined with dense CCTV coverage and one of Europe’s highest police-to-resident ratios, have historically offered a rare sense of normal life for global sporting figures.
The Downside: A Principality With No Escape
That same compactness has a cost. Charles Leclerc, born and raised in Monaco, has publicly asked fans to stop knocking on his door. Franco Colapinto has had training runs filmed and uploaded before he finished them. With no countryside and a resident population regularly tripled by tourists, privacy in Monaco has become, for some, a legal guarantee rather than a lived reality.
Alternatives Emerging on the Grid
Several drivers have looked elsewhere. Andrea Kimi Antonelli has chosen San Marino, which offers comparable tax advantages without Monaco’s tourist density. Others point to Switzerland, once home to Michael Schumacher and Jackie Stewart, where favourable cantons combine financial efficiency with genuine seclusion.
Whether Monaco remains the grid’s default address may depend less on the numbers than on what each driver values most: proximity, or peace.
▶ Watch the full breakdown below and subscribe to our YouTube channel — The Motion Report — for more exclusive F1 lifestyle coverage.
Formula 1, Monaco, F1 Drivers, Charles Leclerc, F1 Lifestyle, Tax Residency, Franco Colapinto, Paddock Life
Read More
- F1 2027: The Race to Fill Haas’s Last Open Seat
- Inside the Private Garages of Formula 1’s Biggest Stars
- F1 WAGs 2026: Who’s Together, Who’s Split, and Who’s Back on the Market
- Yuki Tsunoda Opens Up on Films, Music, and His Bond With Pierre Gasly
- F1 2027 Driver Market: Verstappen’s Silence Leaves the Grid in Limbo
