RACE CAR DRIVER FERDINAND HABSBURG ... The Prince with no Throne

-If the Austro-Hungarian Empire still existed, 25 year old Ferdinand Habsburg would have been its ruler. Instead, he's a race-car driver-
The Schonbrunn Palace is a 1,441-room palace in Vienna, Austria, with manicured gardens, mazes, one of the world's oldest zoos and one of the largest baroque orangeries. For Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, it could have been his home.
Ferdinand Habsburg is the 25-year-old heir apparent to the house of Habsburg-Lorraine. His great-grandfather, Charles I, was the last emperor of Austria and the king of Hungary. Before him, his ancestors presided over a vast global empire for more than 600 years.
But in 1918, Austria became a republic and the Habsburgs were dethroned. Today, some members of the former royal family, like Ferdinand and his 22-year-old sister Gloria, are living in Austria just as ordinary citizens. Every once in a while, this can feel weird in a way that's unique to the Habsburgs. "(At the palace) There is a bedroom that would have been mine if I was the crown prince," he says. "The first time I visited, on a class trip when I was 14, I just thought, 'I would never arrange my room like that.'"
When Ferdinand Habsburg visits the Capuchin crypt in Vienna, the place where his grandparents lie and where he and his father, Karl von Habsburg, will most likely be laid to rest, he has to pay the $10 entrance fee just like any other tourist. "It's a little crazy," he says, laughing. "It's my lying place but I still have to pay to visit."
MONARCHY'S ROLE
What most monarchs around the world do is walkabouts, tours and ribbon cuttings.
Habsburg, however, has no palaces, crowns or golden carriages. But he has his titles: Archduke of Austria, the royal prince of Hungary, and would've been addressed as Imperial and Royal Highness if only Austrian law hadn’t made it illegal.
He also has no role in the government or any position in the diplomatic power. Yet, he sometimes meets up with the Pope and represents the family at Vatican gatherings. He also moves around in some royal circles-- "I know the royal family in Bulgaria quite well because my sister went to school with some" -- but feels uncomfortable being part of others.