Drivers with taste for high life

Life in the fast lane: David Coulthard celebrates a win

By BBC News Online's Jonathan Morris

When Formula One drivers leave the race circuit, they like to take the fastest way home - by air.

Most drivers own or charter their own planes, not because they like to look flash, but because the pressures of the modern sport make a plane as essential as their driving overalls.

The commercial demands of the sport mean that drivers must be able to travel as and when they need to

Andrew Golby, deputy editor of Autosport magazine

The Learjet has become the Formula One drivers' pack horse, carting their well-paid passengers from race meeting, to sponsorship meeting, to test meetings and, if the drivers are lucky, to meet their family in between another race meeting.

This year drivers face a punishing 34-week schedule, with races every other week around the world.

Coulthard, 29, who was due to race for the McLaren-Mercedes team in the Spanish Grand Prix at the Catalunya track in Barcelona on Sunday, was travelling from England to Nice in the south of France when his Learjet 35 developed problems and crashed at Lyon, killing two.

Engaged: Heidi Wichlinski

Coulthard, his fashion model fiancée Heidi Wichlinski, 23, and his bodyguard escaped alive in the crash in which the pilot and co-pilot were killed.

Coulthard, who lives in Monaco, was scheduled to give a press conference on Thursday afternoon prior to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Andrew Golby, deputy editor of Autosport magazine, told BBC News Online: "The season is divided, as much as possible, into continents to reduce the travelling.

"However, the commercial demands of the sport mean that drivers must be able to travel as and when they need to.

The wreckage at Lyon

"Dennis Bergkamp (the Arsenal player who refuses to fly) would not be a very good Formula One driver."

Formula One driver Graham Hill and fellow Grand Prix driver Tony Brise died in 1975 when the light plane he was piloting crashed, but considering the amount of air time put in by drivers, Mr Golby said it was "amazing" there were not more accidents.

Like Graham Hill, many drivers are highly attached to air travel - Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine owns a helicopter and a Learjet.

However, the Learjet has enjoyed a colourful 35-year history as a glamorous, yet tragic, aircraft.

Much-loved American golf champion Payne Stewart was one of five people killed when a Learjet 35 crashed in South Dakota, USA, in October 1999.

In 1994, a Learjet slammed into two apartment buildings in Fresno, California, killing 21 people on the ground.

And in 1996, a Learjet overshot the runway at RAF Northolt in west London and finished up colliding with a van on the busy A40 road. Remarkably, all involved escaped serious injury.