Pole position qualifier Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP and third placed qualifier Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing in parc ferme during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Tuscany at Mugello Circuit on September 12, 2020 in Scarperia, Italy. (Photo by Dan Istitene - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Take a look at how much your favorite F1 drivers make in a season
Formula One is the highest level of motorsports in the world. It is an open secret that F1 involves a lot of money and some of it’s racers are even considered to be among the highest earning athletes in the world. In this article we will focus on exactly that and find out how much are the F1 drivers making per season.
Coming up with exact figures of how much a racer is making per season is hard because the F1 drivers’ contract include performance based bonuses. The better a driver performs, the better his chances of securing a ton of money gets.
Unlike most of the sports across the world, F1 does not have a salary cap. Which means F1 teams are free to spend as much as they want on their drivers. They did introduce a performance cost cap in 2021, however, it has nothing to do with wages.
If we talk about the highest paid Formula One racer in the world, Lewis Hamilton is estimated to be the highest paid racer for the current season bagging in roughly $30 million. The Brit is the highest paid racer which also adds him to the list of highest paid athletes in the world. Hamilton is eight highest paid athlete for the year 2021 falling just behind the tennis superstar Roger Federer.
While Hamilton is making big bucks, it is not the same for everyone. Rookies like Yuki Tsunoda take home not even 5% of what the seven time world champion is making. For the 2021 season, Tsunoda’s earnings are considered to be somewhere around $500,000 which makes him the lowest paid Formula One racer.
Max Verstappen on the other hand falls just below Hamilton. The Dutch racer is reportedly earning around $25 million. It is worth noting that Verstappen is only 24 years old and his wages will surely see new heights in the future.
Below you can have a look at the reported wages of every F1 racer for the 2021 season:
| F1 Racer | Team | Wage |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | $30 Million |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | $10 Million |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | $25 Million |
| Sergio Perez | Red Bull | $8 Million |
| Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | $15 Million |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | $5 Million |
| Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | $15 Million |
| Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | $10 Million |
| Esteban Ocon | Alpine | $5 Million |
| Fernando Alonso | Alpine | $20 Million |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | $10 Million |
| Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | $12 Million |
| Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | $0.5 Million |
| Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | $5 Million |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | $10 Million |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | $1 Million |
| Mick Schumacher | Haas | $1 Million |
| Nikita Mazepin | Haas | $1 Million |
| Nicholas Latifi | Williams | $1 Million |
| George Russell | Williams | $1 Million |
It is evident why Formula One racers are some of the highest paid athletes in the world. Every single racer in earning multi-millions each year except for Tsunoda who is in the early stages of his career.
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