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. Formula One drivers do not receive prize money; their teams pay their salaries. Generally, the drivers or the teams do not disclose their total earnings.
Formula 1 Drivers 2021 Salary The highest-paid F1 driver is Lewis Hamilton, who earned $65 million from his contract with Mercedes. A successful driver in F1 can earn a lot of money, and reports showed in 2021, F1 earned more than $2 billion in revenue. F1 drivers receive additional bonuses through sponsorship opportunities and contractual agreements and endorsements rather than race prize money from F1.
Formula One group placed a cost cap on each team in 2021 of $145 Million throughout the season. This cost cap only applies to performance-based costs like building, optimizing engines, and car structuring, including salaries paid to engineers and other staff. The cost cap also applies to branding, bonuses, hotels, and travel expenses. Formula One driver salaries are not affected by the cost cap, and teams can pay their drivers as much as they like. His bonus is paid by contractual agreements and sponsorships rather than from F1. Verstappen is ranked number two on the Forbes list of highest-paid Formula 1 drivers.
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. 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. 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 . 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. One of the most remarkable things about the Belgian is that in 2015 he became the youngest driver in the history of F1 and later the youngest to win a race. The Red Bull Racing team boasts an exceptional racer who is emerging as the next icon of the motorsports industry. For this year, Max projects total earnings of $ 42 million, which includes bonuses and his net salary of $ 25 million. 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. 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. The salary of an F1 race car driver depends on the contract he signed with the team and bonuses and points earned during the season. 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. A wretched final season at Ferrari has the four-time champion under pressure to deliver for Aston Martin in 2021. Vettel's expected salary with his new team represents a huge drop from his £37m-per-year earnings with the Prancing Horse.
He has not won a race since the Singapore Grand Prix in 2019 but, with a quick car at his disposal, hopes are high for a return towards the front rows of the grid. 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. Formula 1 drivers are bonded by contracts with their respective teams where they earn a basic salary for every race weekend and their achievements on the track are rewarded with hefty bonuses.
The deal is agreed upon by the signing of a contract and the bonus is also decided at the same time. 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. 2021 has witnessed a few contract extension and increment in the F1 driver 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. Because of this the rules on driver changes were subsequently tightened. 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. Undoubtedly, the first place on this list should belong to the best runner of the last decade.
The Briton last year equaled Michael Schumacher's record of seven F1 drivers' championships, also dominating the competition in terms of earnings. His salary for 2021 is 55 million dollars, which added to the bonuses would generate an approximate total of 62 million. The Mercedes driver is, without a doubt, the franchise athlete of motorsport. Being a tremendously popular rider and the oldest of the current season places him on the podium as one of the best paid. Although he was two years away from the F1 tracks, the Spaniard returned from the hand of the Alpine team, where he will receive a single salary of 25 million without bonuses.
It is worth remembering that Alonso won two championships with Renault , has competed in the Indianapolis 500, in the Dakar Rally, and triumphed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona races. F1 drivers have huge salaries, as well as payouts from sponsorship deals and advertising. Lewis Hamilton is dominating the salary leaderboard - earning up to 60 times more than other drivers - a chart has revealed. Full list of 2021 contract deals, including for Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, and George Russell.
One of the hottest prospects in the field, the Ferrari star earned a respectable eighth-place finish in 2020 despite driving a sub-par Ferrari car. It's likely to be another slog for the Italian team so Leclerc will have to be at the top of his game to improve on his two podium finishes last season. Lewis Hamilton In Formula 1 drivers typically work for a base salary, with added bonuses and wins for final place and standings. According to Forbes, the driver making most of the this is Lando Norris. 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. Sebastian Vettel won four straight championships with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013 before jumping to Ferrari, a stint that ended with a disappointing 2020 for both the driver and the team. It is everything in Formula E, chiefly because of the limited track time. Therefore you end up paying a premium for experienced Formula E drivers that increase teams' likelihood of wins and podiums.
It is no surprise, therefore, to see that both seven-time world champion Hamilton and top contender Verstappen are also top of the list of best-paid drivers on the F1 grid. That leaves us with six drivers who are paid substantially less than the drivers at the top of the grid. The Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, the Williams duo of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, and Antonio Giovinazzi of Alfa Romeo are on a similar pay grade. These five drivers earn a base salary of £0.73m every year, while Japanese sensation Yuki Tsunoda earns the least among all drivers with an annual base salary of £0.365m. Pierre Gasly, who used to own that second Red Bull seat, is just behind the Mexican. Since his unexpected win at Monza last season, the Frenchman has gone from strength to strength, being one of the most consistent drivers in the F1 grid alongside the likes of Verstappen, Norris, and Hamilton.
Pierre Gasly earns £3.65m in base salary every year, and with his contract set to expire at the end of this season, he is expected to be rewarded with a bumper offer in the coming months. Next on the list, and maybe a surprise to a few, is two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, earning a whopping £14.6m every season since his return to F1 with Alpine. After a difficult first few races where the Spaniard looked rusty and out of sync with his car, Alonso has been consistently finishing in the points-scoring places, justifying the gamble Alpine took with the 39-year-old. 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. Lewis Hamilton signed a new contract with Mercedes in 2021, pledging his future to the Silver Arrows until the end of 2022 season. The 35-year-old Englishman's last contract cements his status as Britain's biggest sporting earner as well as the best-paid driver in Formula 1 history. The seven-time world champion is officially out of contract with Mercedes, but all the signs are pointing towards a new deal being signed.
Hamilton earned around £40m per season under his previous terms and is surely gunning to win an unprecedented eighth crown. The two-time world champion is back in Formula 1 after a two-year absence. Fernando Alonso is estimated to be earning £15m for his comeback season with Alpine, who have rebranded from Renault. The 39-year-old will be expected to help his new team win the midfield battle after a fifth-place finish in the 2020 constructors' championship.
The number six position on our list of top F1 earners goes to Irish driver Eddie Irvine who had a successful ten-year F1 racing career with Ferrari, Jaguar, and Jordan during the 1990s. After four wins at Ferrari, Eddie Irvine moved to team Jaguar in 2000. In 2001 he became the only driver to get team Jaguar to the podium. The four-time F1 champion is one of the most successful drivers in racing history. The 66-year-old is the oldest driver on the top earner list with an estimated net worth of $185 million. The twice Formula One world champion is considered one of the greatest F1 race car drivers in history.
The highest-paid driver is Lewis Hamilton, who earned $65 million with Mercedes, while Max Verstappen earned $23.5 million with Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton's salary is $65million a year, and his 3-year contract with Mercedes is worth $200 million. Whilst Sir Lewis Hamilton's future in the sport is not yet clear, there have been less changes than normal this winter in terms of brand-new drivers arriving into the sport.
However, with significant driver change within teams, there is a lot to make note of with regards to driver salaries for the new season. After two years away from the F1 track, Fernando Alonso is back with Alpine. The 39-year-old, once at the center of the series' Spygate and Crashgate scandals, has rebuilt himself into a tremendously popular driver, in part by broadening his auto-racing horizons. In recent years, he has competed in the Indianapolis 500, entered the Dakar Rally and won the endurance races 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona.
The Spaniard won the drivers' championship in 2005 and 2006 with Renault—an earlier incarnation of his current team. Still, the drivers' salaries should continue to make up for the marketing gap. Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen is the driver in pole position to receive that championship bump this year, pushing him up to a projected $42 million in salary and bonuses, comfortably No. 2 on the earnings list. He is followed by Fernando Alonso, with $25 million in his debut season at Alpine. 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.
According to Forbes, Lewis is the highest-paid Formula driver with a salary of $55 million and $62 million of projected on-track earnings for this year. The magazine adds that Lewis recently signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes, which comes after a $140 million-contract in 2015 and a $100-million contract extension in 2018. 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.
Next on the list is the rookie that has impressed the most since Verstappen's entry into the sport. After a hugely impressive debut season, where Charles Leclerc won two races and outperformed his then teammate Sebastian Vettel, the young Monégasque was rewarded with a mega offer that would fetch him £8.76m annually on base salary. Current championship leader Max Verstappen, who signed a new contract with Red Bull at the start of the 2020 season, will be taking home £18.25m base salary every year.
The Dutchman is at the peak of his powers and in the driving seat to win his first-ever Driver's World Championship title. Although the seven-time world champion mostly played down talks about the importance of his new contract, reports suggested the Brit was seeking a further pay rise. Hamilton was on £40m a year in his previous deal – earning more than £2m each race in a pandemic-hit 17-race calendar.
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. However, many successful drivers, such as multiple F1 world champions Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher also started their careers as pay drivers but gradually worked their way up the racing ladder. Niki Lauda borrowed money against his life insurance to secure drives in Formula 2 and Formula 1 before impressing enough to have his debts cleared by BRM and then Ferrari. In fact, for 2021, F1 began to apply strict procedures in its finances, in part because of what the COVID-19 pandemic has meant, managing a cap of 145 million dollars for this season that will later be reduced to 135 million by 2023.
As recently published by Forbes, the top ten highest-paid drivers are expected to have a collective income of $ 211 million in addition to the customary bonuses for racing victories. Last year he finished 11th in the drivers' championship, with teammate Perez fourth behind only Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. This year he is 13th, despite having much more experience in this specific car than new teammate Sebastian Vettel , who struggled early in the season but has since recorded three top-five finishes . In 2021, the sport set a budget cap of $US145 million - though not a true cap, because many aspects are excluded, including salaries for the drivers and the team's three highest-paid employees.
Lewis Hamilton is the highest-paid driver in Formula One, according to research. A deal with Ferrari worth $65 million guaranteed per year excluding bonuses, which makes him one of the highest-paid sportsperson in the world. Early in the season it became clear Hamilton was on course to score a record-equalling seventh Formula 1 championship success, which would further raise his already sky-high market value. Although Hamilton played down the importance of his salary in discussions over his new deal, reports claimed F1's highest-earning driver was seeking a further pay rise. Next, we go from one of the younger drivers on the grid to one of the oldest, with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso earning £14.60m after returning to the sport with Alpine. Prize money in F1 is divided into two, with one half divided amongst the top 10 ranked teams in the championship based on their reported race results.
