KEY POINTS:
Besides being Formula One's youngest-ever world champion, Lewis Hamilton could beat Tiger Woods to become the world's first billionaire sportsman after his success in Brazil on Sunday.
But there is only one prize the young man from Stevenage has his eyes on - an orange McLaren F1 road car worth NZ$13.5 million.
Hamilton, believed to be earning around $19 million (NZ$32m)through his Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes salary and product endorsements, is now on track to command the sort of $30m salary that Michael Schumacher enjoyed at Ferrari, and which his successor Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, is currently paid.
But it is expected that he can earn far more than that from deals with sponsors desperate to use his image.
What he wants, though, is two more Formula One titles and the car is his, the 23-year-old driver explained yesterday.
The McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis, promised the Briton before he entered Formula One last year that he would give him the car (below), currently on display at the Woking factory, if he won three titles.
"I want to get this car off Ron," Hamilton said. "We made a deal, three world championships. It's a car that I've always wanted. I got a nice car book for Christmas years ago when I was about 10, and it had the orange McLaren F1 LM on the front. It was my dream car then. Then I got signed up by McLaren, I went to the factory and saw it and ever since I've gazed at it every time I walk past it," he added.
"Still today, it's the only car I ever really stop by, apart from Ayrton [Senna's] 1989 car. I stop by it and I always open it up and just smell it - carbon, fresh, new. It's No 1 out of five and the most expensive and beautiful car in the whole world."
Hamilton and his father, Anthony, who manages his career, are thought to be considering listing the Hamilton brand on the London stock market.
A listing on the AIM market in London could, for example, sell a 10 per cent stake in Lewis Hamilton PLC, for $100m.
Investors would be paid a dividend equivalent to 10 per cent of Hamilton's total future earnings. In 2007 Hamilton moved to Switzerland. He is thought to have saved up to $40m in tax per year from the move.
- THE INDEPENDENT
