However, some prefer to do things that take them out of their comfort zone and that provide not only a useful distraction from the pressures associated with their profession, but that can also lay the foundations of the life that will follow their retirement.
The classic example is Lewis Hamilton, who has a wide range of interests in clothing, music, food and now movie production. The seven-time world champion has always insisted that it’s important to spend quality time away from racing.
His former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas has gone in a different direction by becoming a gin producer.
The Finn is not the first racing driver to move into the alcohol business. Jarno Trulli, Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter, Stefan Johansson and Daniel Ricciardo are just a few examples of drivers who have been associated with wine, while both Jenson Button and David Coulthard are involved with whisky.
The added appeal of the gin business for Bottas is that he’s undertaken the project in conjunction with his partner, Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell. Thus it’s something that both can devote their energies to.
“It really was triggered by passion from both of us,” says Bottas. “Before we met, we both always liked gin.
“And since we started to live together and travel together, we’ve been collecting gin. We’re pretty fortunate that we travel to different countries and get to try different products.
“So eventually it just came to a point that we wanted to do our own. We just decided one day let’s do it, because it’s a common interest.
“So then we started working on it. And it was a bit less than two years later that we launched the product, which was last year.”
The first step was to find like-minded business partners with inside knowledge of the drinks industry.
“We teamed up with a couple of people from Blue Coast Brewery, a beer from Nice,” says Bottas. “They were part of starting that company quite a long time ago and then they exited. And they were also looking for something to do.
Valtteri Bottas, Tiffany Cromwell
“And then we started to look at all the options. One was to try and distil the gin in Monaco, because that is where we live. But we then opted for Finland, because we got to know these people from the distillery that we use.
“They have many award-winning gins already. One of them is Arctic Blue, which was chosen as the best gin in the world five years ago. They know what they’re doing. So we started to work with them on the recipe and…
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