The £30m schloss fit for a Schumi

IT'S finally finished - the mansion of the Formula One racing legend Michael Schumacher is complete after nearly six years, endless hassles and some £30 million in construction costs.

The final pitstop for the clan Schumacher is known to locals as "Schloss Schumi". It sits on the shores of tranquil Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where neighbours include Scotland's former F1 world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, music stars Phil Collins, David Bowie and Celine Dion, and the actor Sir Roger Moore.

Schumacher, 38, has had a little help from the Swiss taxman - his fortune of more than 600 million was accumulated in part because he paid between 2 and 10 per cent on his earnings.

In his native Germany, he would have been hit with taxes of 43 per cent and above.

Few own a house more lavish. It is where Schumacher intends to spend more "quality time" with his wife, Corinna, also 38, and their children, Gina Maria, nine, and Mick, seven.

He doesn't even have to go out for petrol: built underneath the subterranean garage is a tank that can hold thousands of gallons for his fleet of muscle cars.

In the garden, there is a helicopter landing pad, while a private dock for his 5 million motor launch is hidden among the trees at the water's edge.

The mansion has eight bedrooms, five bathrooms and a kitchen that cost 3 million alone. There is a private cinema for 30 people, a jacuzzi, a steam room, a heated indoor swimming pool and two heated outdoor pools built to resemble natural lagoons.

A tower houses the seven times world champion's trophy room. It has a burnished metal roof made in Germany reputed to have cost 400,000.

The path to completion was not always smooth. Some environmental groups protested against the "Legoland" on the shores of the lake. Then came lightning inspections of the site last year, which halted work temporarily when it was found that some labourers had been employed illegally.

A further headache was a law proposed in the Swiss parliament to make Schumacher and his celebrity peers resident in Switzerland pay something approaching normal tax.

Fortunately for him, the bill floundered. Now the family is set to move in on New year's Day after the interior - marble floors, silk wallpaper, redwood carpentry throughout - is finished off.