Athletes and Formula 1: The Unlikely Connection with Tennis
The athlete world is an intertwining web with the word ‘sports’ being the spider that weaves it. Many athletes are fans of sports outside of their own and Formula 1 has quite a few high-profile followers, too. One of the worlds that F1 keeps finding itself mixed with is tennis. That’s an odd combination, isn’t it?
Well, that might seem odd, but France has the second most tennis fans in the world. And it is no surprise that some players reside in Monaco being a beautiful city in France. The French city is the home to many F1 drivers like Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton and incidentally also happens to be where tennis player Grigor Dimitrov puts up. In a recent interview with the Tennis Channel, Dimitrov was asked about his take on Formula 1, and here is what he had to say.
Grigor Dimitrov was invited by the Tennis Channel along with other Tennis players to talk about who their favorite driver in Formula 1 was. The highest-ranked Bulgarian Tennis player gave a more elaborate answer than the rest who were mostly rooting for Lewis Hamilton. But Dimitrov’s answer explained why he couldn’t have one single favorite.
Grigor Dimitrov replied to the question saying, “I live in Monaco so every other day I see Charles [Leclerc] I see Lewis[Hamilton], and Max [Verstappen] lives in my building. So I get the chance to see them every day.” Living in the same city as the F1 legends must be an amazing experience especially when you are an athlete excelling in your respective sport.
Being around drivers who push themselves harder every season must be inspirational to Dimitrov as must his performance be to F1 drivers. As we mentioned earlier, the world of F1 and Tennis are connected, and Lando Norris draws the other bridge to that connection.
Following the Japanese Grand Prix, there have been sightings of Lando Norris around the Tennis courts during the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters. Along with him, there always seems to be a star cast who are enjoying the sport with him. One of the more recent spotting of Norris on the Tennis court was with George Russell and, on another occasion, it was with Martin Garrix. Norris is known to enjoy other sports, as even golf is one of his passions.
Formula 1 drivers enjoy many things besides take-off speeds and G-forces, and tennis the game of stamina and precision is one of them. With that said, do you think we will get to see more tennis players attending F1 races? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.