With few Formula 1 driver salaries publicly available, Forbes relied on financial documents, legal filings and press leaks as well as conversations with industry insiders and consultants to compile this list. Drivers typically receive a base salary plus bonuses for points scored or for race or championship wins, with the amount depending on the size of the team and the experience of the driver. Are we going to downplay what drivers do by equating it to a few hours or sweat and a marketing commitment, seriously feel free to put your life at risk for the entertainment of other human beings and then don't expect to get paid.
F1 has 20 seats, some people die before they even get a chance at formula 1, because even formula 2 is just as dangerous, the level of skill required here is 1 in hundreds of millions. So yes these drivers deserve every penny and maybe more, because none of these drivers should risking their lives for your amusement without being properly compensated. $1M is way to low, I agree with focusing more on race placements maybe to control salaries, but a base salary I think is a must. Athletes are not slaves that has to give up they lives and time and devote everything for our enjoyment. The moment salaries are reduced in sports, racing and all these things revert to slavery.
Because I can guarantee you would not devote all what you need to become good at any sport and expect minimum wage. That would be like me saying journalism is just a bunch of words put together in a few minutes or photographers are pointless because all you do is press a button. Stop reducing persons skill to just what you see on paper, when there is so much that goes on behind the scenes. These people are human beings, not your puppets that you have at your beckon call. Beginning in this season, F1 teams are subject to a cost cap of $175 million per team.
This cap limits expenditures on car performance but doesn't apply to marketing costs or driver salaries. "The aim is to deliver a more competitive championship that features a more level playing field, while ensuring the drive for creating unique and boundary-breaking technology and engineering remains," Formula 1 explains on its website. Leading the field is Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-AMG), with a reported annual salary of $30 million. At the end of the 2020 season, Hamilton was reportedly earning around $40m per year, but his new deal (a one-year contract with the option to extend into 2022) saw him take a reduced salary. Despite him being a seven-time champion and rewriting the sport's record books, it wasn't enough to warrant a hefty paycheck. And with Williams driver George Russell waiting in the wings to take over, Hamilton had little choice but to agree to the new deal.
Lewis Hamilton, who replaced Michael Schumacher at Mercedes in 2012, has become an icon on the same level as his predecessor. Last year, Hamilton matched Schumacher's record with his seventh F1 drivers' championship, and he has dominated the competition with his earnings the way that Schumacher, the world's highest-paid athlete in 2000 and 2001, once did. The 36-year-old signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes this summer, following up on a three-year, $140 million deal in 2015 and a two-year, $100 million extension in 2018.
He is also the founder of X44, a team in the new off-road electric-SUV racing series Extreme E. Hamilton, who has four wins through ten races, still has time to overtake Verstappen, with the gap in the standings a mere eight points and 12 races remaining on the schedule . NFL has hardly any interest outside of the US, despite numerous attempts to spread it to Europe. Whereas F1, football, tennis, etc, are played and watched around the globe. The stars of those sports are known world wide and earn accordingly. There are only 20 F1 drivers, there are hundreds of NFL players and I couldn't name one.
There's no games for retired players, there are no games for anyone who doesn't play at college and then become a professional. Lance completed his first season in Formula 1 last year and, to his credit, showed some level of talent. Despite failing to finish his first three races in the top tier he did pick up a podium in only his eighth race in the sport, and finished the season just three points behind his vastly more experienced teammateFelipe Massa. His young age and his large financial backing have given him a "pay driver" tag, though this upcoming season could see him finally shake it, if he can beat Williams Martini Racing's newest hireSergey Sirotkin. Although occasionally pay drivers are labelled as "unworthy" for an F1 seat, many of the pay drivers in F1 today come with occasional success in their individual races in lower formulas. Maldonado would cement his place in Formula One history with a win at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix as the first Venezuelan to win in F1 with what became the only pole, podium, and win of his career.
It was also the first win for Williams since 2004 and their last as of 2021. Leading the pack is Mercedes superstar Lewis Hamilton, who is on pace to earn $62 million on the track in 2021. That figure includes a $55 million base salary—more than double what his closest competitor is guaranteed—as well as a projected $7 million in bonuses for race wins.
At one time F1 regulations regarding the changing of drivers during the course of a season were extremely liberal, which encouraged some teams to recruit a string of pay drivers to drive their cars, sometimes only for one or two races. Because of this the rules on driver changes were subsequently tightened. F3 drivers are not paid for racing at the lower levels, but they can earn money through personal sponsorships. F3 racers must pay a team to give them their seat in a race.
Affiliating with a team can help them make money by appearing in promotional activities representing the team, whether it be through public appearances or through media and advertisements. There are many methods for F3 racers to promote their racing careers while also earning money for doing so. Although DTM drivers are paid for their races, they are not paid very much. There is no official list of the salaries of DTM drivers, like there are for F1 or NASCAR racers, but the salaries of the top DTM drivers are believed to be similar to those of V8 Supercar Drivers in Australia.
The top racers in Australia's racing league are paid as high as $1 million per year. However, this only applies to the top racers, so most racers in the DTM likely make a salary that can be significantly lower than that figure. In most professional and minor league sports, athletes are paid for their work and contributions to their team. Most F3 drivers will have to pay the teams in order to secure their spot in races for a season. Racers are not paid for their performances, but instead can only make money through personal sponsorships. Success in F3 can lead to a spot in F2 or even a direct advancement to F1, although this is very rare.
It's unclear what will happen with driver salaries next year under the budget cap, though despite their earnings are exempt, it may indicate an overall levelling out of money earned by the drivers at the top of the grid. However, it is likely that as long as Hamilton remains in F1, he will secure his place at the top of this particular list. Whether you love them or hate them, they have been, and always will be, a part of Formula 1.
Racing is expensive, and many teams choose to hire drivers with some level of talent and a healthy bank balance or sponsorship backing over higher quality and lower funded drivers simply to be able to afford to turn up. The professional drivers in Formula sign new deals and shuffle from one team to another with 1st driver opportunity. According to public report in 2019, formula 1 drivers salaries 25% increase in past five years. Lewis Hamilton currently highest earning Formula 1 driver on annual base salary. In 2018, Hamilton signed two years contract deal with Mercedes Meclarn F1 for ($51 million a year) $100 million total value of contract. Pay drivers are also common in stock car racing and are very prevalent in development series such as the Xfinity Series and ARCA Racing Series.
There are also several pay drivers competing at the Cup level including Matt Tifft and Paul Menard, the son of home improvement tycoon John. Menard had some success with a victory at the Brickyard 400 in 2011 and a Chase for the Sprint Cup appearance in 2015, while medical issues halted Tifft's racing career in 2019. In recent years, two particular teams that notoriously made headlines for hiring pay drivers were Racing Point and Williams.
After Racing Point was purchased by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, his son Lance took over one of the team's seats in 2019. Kubica himself was then labelled with the tag when he took over from Sirotkin as his own seat was funded by a large sponsorship deal from Orlen. This may be done to gain on-track experience or to live the lifestyle of a driver in a particular series when one's talent or credentials do not merit a paying ride. Alternatively, said person is also called a ride buyer or a rich kid in the United States, a gentleman driver in sports car and GT racing and a privateer in Australia. There is some controversy regarding the F3 salary structure, as it can be worrisome for some younger races who do not have a well-off family to support their racing endeavours.
These racers may also not attract sponsorships from teams because their financial situations may not compare favorably to other F3 racers. Some drivers attempt to pursue the start of their racing careers in other lower level racing leagues, where they will be paid directly for their races. He enjoyed a period of unprecedented success when he won four F1 World Driver Championships consecutively. This made him the only fourth person to ever win four or more championships.
He has earned a reported $32 million last year making him one of the top paid race car drivers. Being paid an estimated $40-$50 million to drive an F1 race car is clearly outrageous, especially considering that winning an F1 race is not solely nor mostly dependent on the driver. Consider the fraction of Hamilton's yearly salary that Bottas gets, and Bottas still gets some wins, the disparity between those two drivers, on the same team, is quite ridiculous.
The difference in salary is a factor in how the team mates view each other, and that affects the racing. Most of the contracts of Formula 1 drivers include performance-based bonuses wherein they will get an amount based on winning a race and also scoring points over and above the threshold level agreed mutually. Most F1 drivers do not boast about their earnings however they don't stop the press from speculating either. If you are a Formula 1 fan, then it's not surprising that F1 legend Lewis Hamilton is the highest-paid Formula 1 driver right now.
2022 has witnessed a few contract extension and increment in the F1 driver salaries. The F1 cost cap is going to assist in reducing the gap between teams' spending, but it probably won't have much of an effect – if any – on the salaries of team principals and drivers. The role of the F1 team principal will continue to increase in complexity as time goes on, so salaries for F1 team principals may also increase. Lewis Hamilton ($60 million) annual salary remain the highest paid driver in F season. Some drivers did not signed extension contract and after 2020 they are looking for better deals. Max Verstappen driving the last season for the Red Bull racing team.
Kimi Räikkönen break all records in 2007 after signing three years contract deal with Ferrari F1 team. He earns $51 million per year his contract worth of ($153 million) which bring his name among the highest paid drivers and athletes worldwide in 2009. A news website in 2018, revealed the Formula 1 drivers salaries. Unlike most professional sports in the United States, where agents and even teams regularly release contract figures, Formula 1 is still a rather closed society in that regard and actual figures are not released. In F1, drivers typically work for a base salary plus bonuses for wins and place in the final standings.
Some sanctioning bodies will offer champions of lower tier series a well-funded ride for the next tier. The Road to Indy programme from INDYCAR awards a ride fully funded by Mazda for a series champion in the next tier. A $150,000 and tires package is available to a shootout winner among an invited group young American and foreign drivers. F2000 National Championship will win $300,000 to be used for a "pay ride" in the Pro Mazda Championship, and two sets of tires per race. Pro Mazda winners will be paid for a ride in Indy Lights, and the Indy Lights champion earns funding to compete in at least three IndyCar Series races, including the Indianapolis 500.
One of these leagues is the DTM, or the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters . Although a majority of the racers in this league are not paid handsomely, it can be viewed as a better alternative than F3 simply because the racers are paid for their performance. Before F3 can be introduced, you must first have a basic knowledge of F1. Formula 1 racing is the highest class of international racing in the world. Since there are many races in each season, and because drivers come from all different parts of the world, the sport is extremely popular worldwide. Many young racers dream of racing in F1, but there are many other levels they must pass through to get there.
Just like minor league levels for athletes in other sports who aspire to have a major league career, the F3 level is viewed as a racer's first step towards a potential future in F1. At number 2 in the highest-paid race car drivers is Fernando Alonso. He first got behind the steering wheel when he was three and got into kart racing and won three consecutive championships. Car Racing is one of the most taxing and at the same time one of the most lucrative sports in the world. Not only are race car drivers crazy famous but are also paid mullah. Here we take a look at thetop 10 highest paid race car drivers.
Still, the drivers' salaries should continue to make up for the marketing gap. How much an F1 driver, or any athlete in any sport, gets paid should be based on how much the team owner/s and the athlete can negotiate and agree. Only the person/company how much any athlete is worth to their team. That said, as an organization, like any sport, F1 could and should consider the great disparity of salary between drivers in each team.
I base that on the prevailing thinking that any employee should be paid an equal salary for equal work requirements. As with any job, every employee is expected to "produce" for the company. In racing the product of the driver/employee is race position outcome, along with meeting the other work requirements of testing, media appearances, and any other agreed to work requirements.
If Rosberg hadn't run away, he might still be languishing in a Williams and earning peanuts. Most of the driver's contracts will have win, podium & championship bonuses, which I'd expect would take Bottas above the $10m mark. Because there is also a salary floor, teams at the bottom of the series can exploit that because of quirks that mean that teams have to pay the salaries of injured players. If Ferrari / Mercedes / Red Bull can't afford to pay the big salaries in future, they simply won't. So I don't think a cost cap on driver salaries is needed to 'save the big teams from themselves' so to speak. True, some drivers pay to race, but that compounds the divide between the top three teams and the rest.
Do F1 Drivers Get Paid Per Race The solution is for driver earnings to be included in budget caps on the basis that they are performance differentiators, which would in turn release more funding for staff and technology by driving down driver costs. Drivers earn money through a combination of salary, bonuses and sponsorship. The better a driver performs, the more they can earn through bonuses and sponsorship. Some drivers even 'pay' for their racing seats by bringing in sponsorship revenue to their teams.
As explained on Motorsport Tickets' Driven blog, performance-based bonuses can amp up an F1 driver's salary. Kimi ended up scoring 390 championship points over those two years, netting him bonuses of €19.5 million, or about $22 million. Getting drivers to pay to race may seem like a modern concept but is nearly as old as racing itself. Even famed 1950s champion Juan Manuel Fangio supplied funding from the government of Argentina on his way to winning five titles. The trend is still in place today as the Sauber F1 team has hired Brazilian Felipe Nasr who is somewhat of a poster-boy for the sport's financial culture.
The 22-year-old has lured local bank Banco do Brasil to the team giving it an estimated $20 million boost in sponsorship. As per reports, F1's 2021 revenues are estimated at $1.38 billion. As per F1's revenue-sharing model, this amount is shared between the teams and other shareholders (50% each). Each race is believed to bring about anywhere between $100 million to $140 million in revenue.
However, drivers do not receive any prize money because they are paid salaries by the teams they drive for. The top earners in Formula 1 drivers also include F1 Driver Sebastian Vettel, who has signed a record deal with Aston Martin F1 and has an annual salary of $23 million per year. Max Verstappen has extended his contract with the Red Bull till 2023 and will receive a base salary of $23.5 million per season. In the case of the Formula 1 teams further down the grid, there's a fair chance that the team principal earns more than their drivers, but it is all scaled against budget, sponsorship and on track performance.
