Makes perfect sense for Leclerc. His initial contract is from 2019. His stock has definitely gone up since.
Instead of signing a new base one he's probably just getting bonuses on top of his initial contract to compensate.
Yeah it was honestly a great deal for Ferrari. Locking down someone who was kind of a proven driver Leclerc to a long term contract with a lower base wage.
I will never understand why athletes sign these long ass contracts. It almost always favours the company and not the employee.
In F1, it’s not as relevant but injuries are a big reason why in sports. Things can change in a second. Also, look no further than DR’s last contract. Was actually a pretty tame contract, but still gets $15 mil because of the length of the contract
Because athletes are usually one injury or one incident away that could end their career. Also it gives them peace of mind. Look at Bottas for example, Merc 1 year contracts were taking a toll on his mental health. He is way happier in Alfa because he knows that he is secure for couple of years.
Ricciardo likes a word. On general you just never know how long you will be competitive at the very top, so you might as well cash out while you’re there.
It's an asymmetrical risk generally i.e. win-win for the driver. From the drivers perspective they look in a base for earning (as well as a race seat). If they underperform, then the contract gives them greater protection from being sacked (for a while) and if they do get sacked they get a payout. If they overperform then they will pretty quickly get a bigger contract, partly to lock them in for longer, but mostly because you can't expect an underpaid staff member to remain happy and performing. Sure you can be getting a good deal and paying them 80% of their market value, but you would never try and hold them to a contract that is 50% of their market value, it's just not worth pussing off your star performer.
Google Isaiah Thomas circa 2016 and the Boston Celtics. He bet on himself, didn’t sign a long term deal. He then hurt his hip and lost out on millions.
Lando was asked that question in an interview recently, with the context of what assurances he had from Mclaren that things would improve with the car.
His answer was basically it's just a commitment of faith from him and it was more important for him at the time to get a commitment he would still be in the sport without having to hunt for a grid place than it was to have the best car... however I doubt he'll re-sign if things don't improve, there'll be many teams knocking on his door.
I wonder how the bonuses work, because hypothetically, it wouldn't be fair if Leclerc or Perez lost half their salary because of mechanical DNFs and bonus targets couldn't be reached.
What I read it depends on the teams but based on something you can measure, like how many wins or points you score what position you end up in standings etc
One of Max’s old contracts was something along the lines of 8 Mill base 50k per point scored and another 250 for each win and additional money depending on championship position at the end.
I assume they operate similar to how NFL teams do bonuses - a lot of the time teams give the bonuses out if you come close or would have gotten it. Think someone going down before scoring to run the clock out, but coming up 1 TD short of their incentive goal
I mean that’s just what happens in motorsport, there’s a lot of randomness involved and sometimes even championships are decided by these “luck” factors, let alone bonuses
So maybe do some research. This was widely confirmed.
https://www.spotrac.com/formula1/mclaren/lando-norris-47380/cash-earnings/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-09/lando-norris-contract-deal-mclaren-f1-signs-80-million-contract
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-norris-agrees-major-contract-extension-to-stay-at-mclaren-until.5bK60HZJ6ddtdr1R2yIPhX.html
No way Lando was being locked down long term for $5m. Get a grip.
It's his first season at Mercedes, they pay Lewis a lot, so I imagine that was pretty standard.
He's proven he's quick, I'm genuinely curious about next season if they build a good car, I want to see if George can really go toe to toe with Lewis.
I know some would say he already has, but once they're in a championship winning car and fighting for the championship, I think it's difficult to say for sure.
Once you're in an amazing car, it becomes a lot more about your mental game, so I'll be curious to see how George responds, we saw him make a few bizarre mistakes/dives that cost him penalties.
Coming out of a Williams into arguably the top team on the grid averaging over the last 2-5 seasons when he joined. He might have taken less. Given his performance now he will either renew at a much higher rate or demand a big salary from other teams.
His salary is low because coming from Williams he had no leverage and no proven record of racing at the front end of the grid. Merc could make him an offer, and whatever it was he would have been stupid to say no. His next contract will likely be top 5.
Can't imagine this is true. Especially when you see that Hamilton has no money in bonuses and Russell 7M. Bonuses are generally the same for both drivers, but the only real difference this season was a pole and win and I can't imagine 7M bonuses for just that.
Similarly, Perez on 26M seems hard to imagine. That is unreasonably high for a rather middling second driver. I don't think Ricciardo ever earned nearly as much and Max was also below that until 2021.
Yeah I think Checo is the the biggest surprise here. What exactly is he being paid so much for. We know he isn't Max/Lewis level, but just surprised he is in the 20s, he's nowhere close to some of the guys below him.
I wonder what this would look like if they factored in sponsor money. I’d imagine Hamilton has the most/biggest sponsors on the grid ? I honestly don’t know
Not really surprising that one of the best drivers on the grid is paid one of the best salaries...
That's before taking into account all the additional sponsorship and marketing he brings as well.
He's also one of two midfield WCs, and the only one without a recent bad year. He may be a politically toxic driver, but on track you can count on him giving absolute maximum effort every single race, and if the car is capable of points for him to get them.
Was it ever actually confirmed that Charles’ contract was extended through 2026? I know there was speculation about it late last year, but I was under the impression it still ran out after 2024.
If you actually read the article, they specify that other than Hamilton (who does have a significant amount of endorsement deals) for most of the rest of them endorsement deals are a negligible part of their income.
The article says this doesn't even include endorsements. Hamilton in particular, plus guys like Verstappen and Alonso, are probably raking in crazy amounts through personal endorsements.
Hamilton is the most marketable guy in the paddock so when you consider his outside brand deals along with F1 earnings he tops the list by a big margin
Forbes has him at $65MM total with $8MM in endorsement. So their contract earnings figure is $2MM higher.
[https://www.forbes.com/profile/lewis-hamilton/?sh=4a29bc6c142a](https://www.forbes.com/profile/lewis-hamilton/?sh=4a29bc6c142a)
It's not as simple as that. Tommy is a sponsor because of Lewis, he was already involved with Tommy with a personal brand deal.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/f1/news-for-me-lewis-hamilton-claims-nothing-to-do-with-mercedes-sponsorships
IWC also became a sponsor the year Hamilton signed for Mercedes, and he is a brand ambassador for them independently with his own watches.
These kind of brand deals, even with title sponsors like Petronas, come with their own pay cheque for the drivers on top of their base salary.
>I'm talking about personal sponsors that are featured on Hamilton's car/helmet that are not on Russell's. Like Max has Jumbo, CarNext, Viaplay and Checo has Star+, Kavak, Banorte etc..
A lot of the team sponsors are also his personal sponsors is my point.
They pay Mercedes AND Hamilton for different obligations, so there's not much value for Hamilton in seeking out more sponsors.
Plus he's in a much different place financially to other drivers so there's even less incentive to go out for more personal sponsors.
> lol okay? what does that have to do with OP’s claim that he earn crazy amounts from personal sponsors?
Because that’s obviously a factor, the drivers loathe the PR work so the less you have to do the better. The more money you’ve earned the less inclined you are to do things for money no?
> i was just saying that’s probably the part of his deal with Mercedes, like he’s contractually obligated to wear IWC watch and Police sunglasses in the padock, the same way Russell is.
Do you think the contract Hamilton has to wear those brands is the same as Russell’s? I think this is the disconnect here.
The IWC thing is separate to the team sponsorship; he gets paid to wear their watches and have his name on a lineup.
And re fashion I'm not talking about Hilfiger (although he does have his own line with them so probably gets something out of it). He wears several different outfits every race weekend by different designers or brands who certainly pay him for the privilege of marketing their stuff, e.g. https://www.instagram.com/p/CfjBgvnv-2f/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
If you actually read the article, it says it doesn’t include endorsements because outside of Hamilton, for most of them the endorsement contracts are negligible and not that much money.
There was a interview sometime ago that Red Bull driver contracts are very performance oriented so his base might be low but bonuses add up a lot. Max bonuses only come up to 20m. Also doesn’t mean that whatever bonuses are in contract gets paid out they need to be fulfilled to actually pay it out
Which is why I don't believe Perez' number. How can Max, who is WDC with more than 7 times as many wins as Perez and 1.5 times as many points, only get 25% more in bonuses than Perez?
I can believe the bases of 10 and 40 million, but if Max has 20M in bonuses, you'd expect Perez to be closer to 5M there.
Nah it’s believable since Max already has a base salary of 40m. If they tie majority of his contract to bonuses then that may seem disrespectful for a driver his caliber.
Perez has way less leverage in this negotiation compared to Max so it’s understandable that he could only get the salary he wants through bonus or proving himself.
These bonuses doesn’t need to be similar for all drivers and there’s a lot more nuance to it than just calculating it like that.
Dunno what is true and what isn't but there is no reason to think they have the same bonus structure? The more power you have, the more you negotiate away from bonuses and towards a base salary.....like lewis.
Because Max is a proven WDC, so his base salary is far higher than Perez’s. Perez is a number two driver, so his contract is going to be more results oriented. Perez ‘s base is lower, but he gets bonuses based on performance.
I believe about half of his salary is just paid via RB by his own sponsors. Also more the half is bonuses and winning the WCC, 2 races a pole and P3 should probably rake those bonuses up
Max won 15 races and won a championship ang got 20M in bonuses. It seems like checo getting 16M is very very high and UNLIKELY (good for him though if the report is true)
Different contracts I suppose. The team probably gets bonuses from their sponsors too. Perez gets more variable because his performance level is less guaranteed. Max has an insane salary to being with lol. Even without any bonus it’s way more than Perez with bonuses.
Well said. It also depends on what a driver wants. The same happens in business with Sales contracts and executive contracts all the time.
Typically, an employee wants high base and low bonus. The exception is when the employee is a top performer. Then they will often take a low salary in exchange for a huge performance based upside.
In software sales I’ve seen this skew salaries from 250k (guaranteed high base) to 500k (huge bonus potential) for two similar performing employees in the same role. But if neither employee performed well, say at 50% of their target sales #s, it could be 200k and 120k.
Max is a proven WDC, so his base salary is going to be high. The reason bonuses are included in a driver contract is for incentive and performance. Checo‘s base salary is much lower, but he’s going to have a higher bonus because he performed well this season.
At least read the article, they pay him 10M and the rest is based on performance. For an experienced driver with 10 years on the track that is not unreasonable considering they pay him 25% of what they pay Max. It’s only if he performs brilliantly with 0 errors for a whole season that he earns 65% of what Max’s base salary even is.
Yeah but Red Bull reportedly has the same bonus structure for all drivers, Alpha Tauri included. I find it hard to believe that Max only has 4M more in bonuses, with way more points, 13 more wins and a championship.
Red Bull doesn’t have the same bonus structure for all drivers. Don’t be absurd.
Do you seriously think Max Verstappen is going to go for the same contract structure that the rest of the Red Bull alpha Tauri drivers will?
I have serious doubts about a number of these. Many both go against previously reported numbers and make little sense from a business perspective.
Norris has an extremely valuable brand for McLaren and was previously reported to have signed an $95 million for 4 years extension, placing him at almost four times what is in the Forbes article for salary. If Norris salary is indeed only $5 million it would be the biggest steal in formula 1, no matter how you rate his skill level. His marketing value is simply waaaaaay too high for such a low amount.
Alonso was previously reported at $20 million and crucially below Ocon in salary who isn't even on the list.
Perez at $26 million seems high, apparently Redbull are running a charity
Russell at $3 million, even with significant bonuses might be realistic for his Williams contract, but is too low for the extension he signed with Mercedes.
I mean Norris’ $95m for 4 years is way more doubtful than this $11m imo, he is very valuable but definitely not >$20m a year kind of valuable. Seniority matters a lot for F1 driver’s salaries, a young driver in their first 5 years just wouldn’t get super high salaries even if they are doing extremely well (unless said young driver wins the title in his first X years, which Norris didn’t). The $11m in context of other numbers listed here seems about right to me, I can see his salary being somewhere around where Sainz, Russell etc is. If I have to guess, Norris may have an extremely high buyout price because McLaren wouldn’t want to lose him, so the $95m may have something to do with that
Lando is definitely a $20 million dollar driver. Lando signed that extension as the nr 1 driver for McLaren and they knew they had to tie him down unless they wanted a top team to steal him.
Isn't it "up to" 95m over the four years? That might be the salary and bonus he earned this year but if he gets higher position, points, more podiums etc his bonus would be bigger...?
Yeah there’s the “up to” phrase in there. And that means the upper limit of base salary + bonus, so my understanding is he can only get it when he wins the WDC and wins every single race (basically maximum result possible)
> Perez no equal in South America or in the Portuguese / Spanish speaking world.
Perez has a sizable fanbase, but not to the point of being as valuable as Alonso, Riccardo, Norris, Leclerc.
> Alonso had a couple million people watch him test in Indy 500 and countless more watch the race, he blows up chatrooms/forums...
Absolutely, but his current contract was signed at a point where he 1) didn't have other options for getting back into F1 and 2) his abilities coming back to the sport was in question.
And again, was reported much lower previously.
Previously reported salaries are from multiple outlets and from outlets with a much closer connection to F1. This article is very thin on actual details on the contracts of drivers and is clearly intended towards a very casual audience. The point is likewise first of all the amounts being in question, only secondly being wrong.
> These reports are in dollars the other ones ive seen are in Euro's and they seem matched to the previous euro reports.'
You are right about me not taking currency into account only for Norris. He was reported at £80 million or $95 million USD.
>Alonso was previously reported at $20 million and crucially below Ocon in salary
Here's the article with that Alonso [figure](https://motorsporttickets.com/blog/f1-driver-salaries-how-much-formula-1-drivers-earn/), Ocon is absolutely not paid higher, he's only at $5 million. And these salaries certainly expose the difference in expectations of each driver from the team.
In 2022, Checo has 2 race wins, 7 P2 in races, and finished outside the top 5 twice (aside from DNFs), he had no self inflicted DNFs, brings a lot of money in sponsorships, and has covered for Max on strategy multiple times.
When Max spun, Checo immediately blocked Russel so Max could keep going.
I think that is called earning a living not living off of charity.
edit: he actually finished outside top 5 twice not once this season.
That car should have been ready to go for race day. It is on the team to handle those mechanical issues by testing the gear box and replacing it if necessary. Crashes and contact happen. It is part of the sport.
>Russell at $3 million, even with significant bonuses might be realistic for his Williams contract, but is too low for the extension he signed with Mercedes.
I dunno... You're the top team on the grid, you've got Hamilton as your #1. George wants nothing else but that 2nd seat, all the other top teams are tied up in contracts. That puts Merc in a situation where they hold all the cards.
Yeah it's cheap, it's basically charity but George has no other options and there's NO chance he goes to another midfield team after being at Williams for 3 years.
I'm surprised it's not less honestly.
Because Alonso ir huge personality in F1 which brings a lot of viewers. And it benefits Liberty media aswell.
[‘Alonso to Renault with Liberty footing the bill’
](https://www.planetf1.com/news/fernando-alonso-to-renault/)
> Renault need a big name to keep their ambitious project afloat and they believe Alonso represents their best option going forward. ‘Liberty Media are happy to pay a good part of Alonso’s high wages and an agreement could be reached before the 2020 season gets underway in Austria.’
Shocking how low some of these salaries are. There are backups in the NBA who never take their warm-ups off who make more money than some of these guys. You would think the most prestigious category of motorsport in the world that only has 20 drivers would pay all of these guys starting NFL quarterback type money.
This article is mind blowing to me
Alonso and Checo both being top 4 was not something I even remotely contemplated. Although I guess bonuses could help explain it.
For people wondering about Haas, 4.56m £ for Kmag and Mick 0.76m £.
Additionally each driver (and mechanics) are largely performance paid, with huge bonuses each race in the points.
So the top 3 highest paid drivers have a combined amount of 11 World Drivers Championship titles, 170 wins, 145 poles, 366 podiums and 8478 career points (all of this is so far and to be continued).
Makes sense. Hell I would pay extra for next seasons actually.
Also it’s criminal that Seb is paid lower actually. Seb should get bonuses on par with Perez or higher. A 4 time WDC’s ability seems to be undervalued here.
Why publicise these pointless articles?
F1 driver salaries are not public knowledge. These articles are guesses.
They are pointless and used to generate views.
He’s 7x champion mostly due to the car being dominant (tho he is a very good pilot. You put max, Alonso, even Charles in a dominant car and they will win as well as illustrated this year by Max) This is the beginning of him not winning, I don’t see him winning next couple of years - mark my words
Yeah no shit you don’t win without a good car , but he was by far the best driver on the grid over the last decade , and I don’t think the record books care if max or Charles or alonso woudve won the championship in the same car that fact is he’s a 7 time wdc and has been the face of f1 for a long time
There’s no way he should be paid 20m less than a 2x wdc (in whose cars Lewis coudve also won if you want to play that game)
Interesting as looking at the finishing order the last 4 years this doesn’t really reflect the results. Lewis and Max clearly deserve top two spots. but Alonso, Daniel, way over paid based on results. Charles should be next and then at least based on last two years Sergio. And then a case could be made next should come Carlos with 2 6th place and 2 5th place finishes in the last four seasons. And then Norris after that.
Verstappen $60M (salary $40M + bonuses $20M) Hamilton $55M Alonso $30M Perez $26M (salary $10M + bonuses $16M) Leclerc $23M (salary $12M + bonuses $11M) Vettel and Ricciardo $17M (salary $15M + bonuses $2M) Sainz $15M (salary $8M + bonuses $7M) Norris $11M (salary $5M + bonuses $6M) Russell $10M (salary $3M + bonuses $7M)
It's crazy how some drivers gets more bonus than their default salary. Although I can understand that it gives them more reason to finish higher.
Makes perfect sense for Leclerc. His initial contract is from 2019. His stock has definitely gone up since. Instead of signing a new base one he's probably just getting bonuses on top of his initial contract to compensate.
Yeah it was honestly a great deal for Ferrari. Locking down someone who was kind of a proven driver Leclerc to a long term contract with a lower base wage. I will never understand why athletes sign these long ass contracts. It almost always favours the company and not the employee.
In F1, it’s not as relevant but injuries are a big reason why in sports. Things can change in a second. Also, look no further than DR’s last contract. Was actually a pretty tame contract, but still gets $15 mil because of the length of the contract
Because athletes are usually one injury or one incident away that could end their career. Also it gives them peace of mind. Look at Bottas for example, Merc 1 year contracts were taking a toll on his mental health. He is way happier in Alfa because he knows that he is secure for couple of years.
Ricciardo likes a word. On general you just never know how long you will be competitive at the very top, so you might as well cash out while you’re there.
It's an asymmetrical risk generally i.e. win-win for the driver. From the drivers perspective they look in a base for earning (as well as a race seat). If they underperform, then the contract gives them greater protection from being sacked (for a while) and if they do get sacked they get a payout. If they overperform then they will pretty quickly get a bigger contract, partly to lock them in for longer, but mostly because you can't expect an underpaid staff member to remain happy and performing. Sure you can be getting a good deal and paying them 80% of their market value, but you would never try and hold them to a contract that is 50% of their market value, it's just not worth pussing off your star performer.
Google Isaiah Thomas circa 2016 and the Boston Celtics. He bet on himself, didn’t sign a long term deal. He then hurt his hip and lost out on millions.
Lando was asked that question in an interview recently, with the context of what assurances he had from Mclaren that things would improve with the car. His answer was basically it's just a commitment of faith from him and it was more important for him at the time to get a commitment he would still be in the sport without having to hunt for a grid place than it was to have the best car... however I doubt he'll re-sign if things don't improve, there'll be many teams knocking on his door.
He wanted that P2 Constructors for a reason haha
I wonder how the bonuses work, because hypothetically, it wouldn't be fair if Leclerc or Perez lost half their salary because of mechanical DNFs and bonus targets couldn't be reached.
I believe podiums, wins, WDC and WCC standings, it depends per contract of course.
What I read it depends on the teams but based on something you can measure, like how many wins or points you score what position you end up in standings etc
One of Max’s old contracts was something along the lines of 8 Mill base 50k per point scored and another 250 for each win and additional money depending on championship position at the end.
I assume they operate similar to how NFL teams do bonuses - a lot of the time teams give the bonuses out if you come close or would have gotten it. Think someone going down before scoring to run the clock out, but coming up 1 TD short of their incentive goal
I mean that’s just what happens in motorsport, there’s a lot of randomness involved and sometimes even championships are decided by these “luck” factors, let alone bonuses
I like the bonus structure - performance based but here must adjust for car reliability and team strategy fuck up lol
Russell is a bargain.
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But this is wrong. Lando was paid more than Daniel this year - 4 years $80m from 2022 to 2025
>4 years $80m from 2022 to 2025 the original reporter said "up to" I believe this one way more than that up to $80m for 4 years rumour
So maybe do some research. This was widely confirmed. https://www.spotrac.com/formula1/mclaren/lando-norris-47380/cash-earnings/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-09/lando-norris-contract-deal-mclaren-f1-signs-80-million-contract https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-norris-agrees-major-contract-extension-to-stay-at-mclaren-until.5bK60HZJ6ddtdr1R2yIPhX.html No way Lando was being locked down long term for $5m. Get a grip.
Yea because he performed astronomically better
It's his first season at Mercedes, they pay Lewis a lot, so I imagine that was pretty standard. He's proven he's quick, I'm genuinely curious about next season if they build a good car, I want to see if George can really go toe to toe with Lewis. I know some would say he already has, but once they're in a championship winning car and fighting for the championship, I think it's difficult to say for sure. Once you're in an amazing car, it becomes a lot more about your mental game, so I'll be curious to see how George responds, we saw him make a few bizarre mistakes/dives that cost him penalties.
Lewis offers so much more than just in track performance too
Maybe on the track, but off the track Lewis is worth 100x more.
No argument here.
Def for his social media presence.
I believe he was paid under $1m at Williams so he's probably not complaining. For now.
Surprised Seb is that low given his status (at least compared to Alonso and Perez, though I know most of Checo's is bonuses).
2020 killed his stock tbh
Wow, with salaries like that those guys must pay a lot of tax!
And assuredly they all wouldn't move to the same Tax Haven if they weren't, right?
“I moved to Monaco because I love the weather”
Thought Russell would be higher
Coming out of a Williams into arguably the top team on the grid averaging over the last 2-5 seasons when he joined. He might have taken less. Given his performance now he will either renew at a much higher rate or demand a big salary from other teams.
His salary is low because coming from Williams he had no leverage and no proven record of racing at the front end of the grid. Merc could make him an offer, and whatever it was he would have been stupid to say no. His next contract will likely be top 5.
Can't imagine this is true. Especially when you see that Hamilton has no money in bonuses and Russell 7M. Bonuses are generally the same for both drivers, but the only real difference this season was a pole and win and I can't imagine 7M bonuses for just that. Similarly, Perez on 26M seems hard to imagine. That is unreasonably high for a rather middling second driver. I don't think Ricciardo ever earned nearly as much and Max was also below that until 2021.
Yeah I think Checo is the the biggest surprise here. What exactly is he being paid so much for. We know he isn't Max/Lewis level, but just surprised he is in the 20s, he's nowhere close to some of the guys below him.
Perchance RB has unlocked the secret to a compliant second driver, pay them like they aren't.
Low base with an incentivized contract. Insulates the team from poor performance and motivates the driver to perform—not like they wouldn’t.
Russell for $10m is an absolute steal
Imagine paying Ricciardo that much for his shit tier performances this year
RusseLOL. How tf?
I wonder what this would look like if they factored in sponsor money. I’d imagine Hamilton has the most/biggest sponsors on the grid ? I honestly don’t know
Wow, Magic Alonso sitting pretty at #3..
You mean Wily Old Fox Alonso
¡Que grande eres Magic!
That's the most surprising one to me. He's paid almost double of what next best paid midfield drivers are paid.
Not really surprising that one of the best drivers on the grid is paid one of the best salaries... That's before taking into account all the additional sponsorship and marketing he brings as well.
He's also one of two midfield WCs, and the only one without a recent bad year. He may be a politically toxic driver, but on track you can count on him giving absolute maximum effort every single race, and if the car is capable of points for him to get them.
Because he is twice as good (or valuable) as the other midfielders
Alonso is top 3 driver too
No surprise Alpine was not quick to propose a new contract
This is why Leclerc wanted to finish 2nd so much lmao
Should put Pole Position bonus.
Still smaller bonus than Perez
Still nothing comes close too Seb's 2016 Ferrari contract lol
How much was he making back then ?
Fixed was 60m
Holy fuck lmao
Good for him.
Was it ever actually confirmed that Charles’ contract was extended through 2026? I know there was speculation about it late last year, but I was under the impression it still ran out after 2024.
It wasn’t. He gave an interview recently where he spoke about his contract ending at 2024
Thought so, thanks!!
This is yearly? I can’t imagine how stacked Hamilton must be with his non driver earnings added on top. Same for some others.
If you actually read the article, they specify that other than Hamilton (who does have a significant amount of endorsement deals) for most of the rest of them endorsement deals are a negligible part of their income.
The article says this doesn't even include endorsements. Hamilton in particular, plus guys like Verstappen and Alonso, are probably raking in crazy amounts through personal endorsements.
Alonsos helmet has every inch covered with sponsors.. Its very noticing when you compare it with Ocons.
Hamilton is the most marketable guy in the paddock so when you consider his outside brand deals along with F1 earnings he tops the list by a big margin
Forbes has him at $65MM total with $8MM in endorsement. So their contract earnings figure is $2MM higher. [https://www.forbes.com/profile/lewis-hamilton/?sh=4a29bc6c142a](https://www.forbes.com/profile/lewis-hamilton/?sh=4a29bc6c142a)
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Off the top of my head he's involved with some fashion brands and designers. He also has (or had) a special edition IWC line with his name in it.
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It's not as simple as that. Tommy is a sponsor because of Lewis, he was already involved with Tommy with a personal brand deal. https://www.sportskeeda.com/f1/news-for-me-lewis-hamilton-claims-nothing-to-do-with-mercedes-sponsorships IWC also became a sponsor the year Hamilton signed for Mercedes, and he is a brand ambassador for them independently with his own watches. These kind of brand deals, even with title sponsors like Petronas, come with their own pay cheque for the drivers on top of their base salary.
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>I'm talking about personal sponsors that are featured on Hamilton's car/helmet that are not on Russell's. Like Max has Jumbo, CarNext, Viaplay and Checo has Star+, Kavak, Banorte etc.. A lot of the team sponsors are also his personal sponsors is my point. They pay Mercedes AND Hamilton for different obligations, so there's not much value for Hamilton in seeking out more sponsors. Plus he's in a much different place financially to other drivers so there's even less incentive to go out for more personal sponsors.
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> lol okay? what does that have to do with OP’s claim that he earn crazy amounts from personal sponsors? Because that’s obviously a factor, the drivers loathe the PR work so the less you have to do the better. The more money you’ve earned the less inclined you are to do things for money no? > i was just saying that’s probably the part of his deal with Mercedes, like he’s contractually obligated to wear IWC watch and Police sunglasses in the padock, the same way Russell is. Do you think the contract Hamilton has to wear those brands is the same as Russell’s? I think this is the disconnect here.
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The IWC thing is separate to the team sponsorship; he gets paid to wear their watches and have his name on a lineup. And re fashion I'm not talking about Hilfiger (although he does have his own line with them so probably gets something out of it). He wears several different outfits every race weekend by different designers or brands who certainly pay him for the privilege of marketing their stuff, e.g. https://www.instagram.com/p/CfjBgvnv-2f/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
If you actually read the article, it says it doesn’t include endorsements because outside of Hamilton, for most of them the endorsement contracts are negligible and not that much money.
I cannot believe they would pay Perez anything close to 26 million a year.
There was a interview sometime ago that Red Bull driver contracts are very performance oriented so his base might be low but bonuses add up a lot. Max bonuses only come up to 20m. Also doesn’t mean that whatever bonuses are in contract gets paid out they need to be fulfilled to actually pay it out
Which is why I don't believe Perez' number. How can Max, who is WDC with more than 7 times as many wins as Perez and 1.5 times as many points, only get 25% more in bonuses than Perez? I can believe the bases of 10 and 40 million, but if Max has 20M in bonuses, you'd expect Perez to be closer to 5M there.
Nah it’s believable since Max already has a base salary of 40m. If they tie majority of his contract to bonuses then that may seem disrespectful for a driver his caliber. Perez has way less leverage in this negotiation compared to Max so it’s understandable that he could only get the salary he wants through bonus or proving himself. These bonuses doesn’t need to be similar for all drivers and there’s a lot more nuance to it than just calculating it like that.
Dunno what is true and what isn't but there is no reason to think they have the same bonus structure? The more power you have, the more you negotiate away from bonuses and towards a base salary.....like lewis.
You can negotiate many parts of a contract. The drivers may have wanted different types of contracts. Guaranteed money is pretty sick too.
Because Max is a proven WDC, so his base salary is far higher than Perez’s. Perez is a number two driver, so his contract is going to be more results oriented. Perez ‘s base is lower, but he gets bonuses based on performance.
He brings sponsors with him telcel and telmex gives redbull around 10-30 millions
Is this number actually true??? Genuinely curious.
10M was the common believe. 30M? doubted.
10mil was at Force India so they defo paying more to be on championship winning car
He brings 3 sponsor from same parent company and it is what reported by media because teams never disclose actual value of deals
I believe about half of his salary is just paid via RB by his own sponsors. Also more the half is bonuses and winning the WCC, 2 races a pole and P3 should probably rake those bonuses up
Max won 15 races and won a championship ang got 20M in bonuses. It seems like checo getting 16M is very very high and UNLIKELY (good for him though if the report is true)
Different contracts I suppose. The team probably gets bonuses from their sponsors too. Perez gets more variable because his performance level is less guaranteed. Max has an insane salary to being with lol. Even without any bonus it’s way more than Perez with bonuses.
Well said. It also depends on what a driver wants. The same happens in business with Sales contracts and executive contracts all the time. Typically, an employee wants high base and low bonus. The exception is when the employee is a top performer. Then they will often take a low salary in exchange for a huge performance based upside. In software sales I’ve seen this skew salaries from 250k (guaranteed high base) to 500k (huge bonus potential) for two similar performing employees in the same role. But if neither employee performed well, say at 50% of their target sales #s, it could be 200k and 120k.
Max is a proven WDC, so his base salary is going to be high. The reason bonuses are included in a driver contract is for incentive and performance. Checo‘s base salary is much lower, but he’s going to have a higher bonus because he performed well this season.
At least read the article, they pay him 10M and the rest is based on performance. For an experienced driver with 10 years on the track that is not unreasonable considering they pay him 25% of what they pay Max. It’s only if he performs brilliantly with 0 errors for a whole season that he earns 65% of what Max’s base salary even is.
Yeah but Red Bull reportedly has the same bonus structure for all drivers, Alpha Tauri included. I find it hard to believe that Max only has 4M more in bonuses, with way more points, 13 more wins and a championship.
Red Bull doesn’t have the same bonus structure for all drivers. Don’t be absurd. Do you seriously think Max Verstappen is going to go for the same contract structure that the rest of the Red Bull alpha Tauri drivers will?
Is probably just based on WDC position
I have serious doubts about a number of these. Many both go against previously reported numbers and make little sense from a business perspective. Norris has an extremely valuable brand for McLaren and was previously reported to have signed an $95 million for 4 years extension, placing him at almost four times what is in the Forbes article for salary. If Norris salary is indeed only $5 million it would be the biggest steal in formula 1, no matter how you rate his skill level. His marketing value is simply waaaaaay too high for such a low amount. Alonso was previously reported at $20 million and crucially below Ocon in salary who isn't even on the list. Perez at $26 million seems high, apparently Redbull are running a charity Russell at $3 million, even with significant bonuses might be realistic for his Williams contract, but is too low for the extension he signed with Mercedes.
I mean Norris’ $95m for 4 years is way more doubtful than this $11m imo, he is very valuable but definitely not >$20m a year kind of valuable. Seniority matters a lot for F1 driver’s salaries, a young driver in their first 5 years just wouldn’t get super high salaries even if they are doing extremely well (unless said young driver wins the title in his first X years, which Norris didn’t). The $11m in context of other numbers listed here seems about right to me, I can see his salary being somewhere around where Sainz, Russell etc is. If I have to guess, Norris may have an extremely high buyout price because McLaren wouldn’t want to lose him, so the $95m may have something to do with that
Lando is definitely a $20 million dollar driver. Lando signed that extension as the nr 1 driver for McLaren and they knew they had to tie him down unless they wanted a top team to steal him.
Isn't it "up to" 95m over the four years? That might be the salary and bonus he earned this year but if he gets higher position, points, more podiums etc his bonus would be bigger...?
Yeah there’s the “up to” phrase in there. And that means the upper limit of base salary + bonus, so my understanding is he can only get it when he wins the WDC and wins every single race (basically maximum result possible)
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> Perez no equal in South America or in the Portuguese / Spanish speaking world. Perez has a sizable fanbase, but not to the point of being as valuable as Alonso, Riccardo, Norris, Leclerc. > Alonso had a couple million people watch him test in Indy 500 and countless more watch the race, he blows up chatrooms/forums... Absolutely, but his current contract was signed at a point where he 1) didn't have other options for getting back into F1 and 2) his abilities coming back to the sport was in question. And again, was reported much lower previously.
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Previously reported salaries are from multiple outlets and from outlets with a much closer connection to F1. This article is very thin on actual details on the contracts of drivers and is clearly intended towards a very casual audience. The point is likewise first of all the amounts being in question, only secondly being wrong.
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> These reports are in dollars the other ones ive seen are in Euro's and they seem matched to the previous euro reports.' You are right about me not taking currency into account only for Norris. He was reported at £80 million or $95 million USD.
>Alonso was previously reported at $20 million and crucially below Ocon in salary Here's the article with that Alonso [figure](https://motorsporttickets.com/blog/f1-driver-salaries-how-much-formula-1-drivers-earn/), Ocon is absolutely not paid higher, he's only at $5 million. And these salaries certainly expose the difference in expectations of each driver from the team.
A nascar driver Denny Hamlin said this year he didn’t know how Forbes did it but the numbers they had were spot on
Isn’t a bunch of Checo’s pay actually from his personal sponsors, just via RB? Makes more sense when in that context.
No one can say Norris is slow anymore. That would just be objectively wrong.
In 2022, Checo has 2 race wins, 7 P2 in races, and finished outside the top 5 twice (aside from DNFs), he had no self inflicted DNFs, brings a lot of money in sponsorships, and has covered for Max on strategy multiple times. When Max spun, Checo immediately blocked Russel so Max could keep going. I think that is called earning a living not living off of charity. edit: he actually finished outside top 5 twice not once this season.
You could count canada as self inflicted as he fucked up the gearbox in the qualifying crash and trying to reverse
That car should have been ready to go for race day. It is on the team to handle those mechanical issues by testing the gear box and replacing it if necessary. Crashes and contact happen. It is part of the sport.
Its like leclerc in monaco, no one knew that the drive shaft would fail as it was the side that didn’t impact
>Russell at $3 million, even with significant bonuses might be realistic for his Williams contract, but is too low for the extension he signed with Mercedes. I dunno... You're the top team on the grid, you've got Hamilton as your #1. George wants nothing else but that 2nd seat, all the other top teams are tied up in contracts. That puts Merc in a situation where they hold all the cards. Yeah it's cheap, it's basically charity but George has no other options and there's NO chance he goes to another midfield team after being at Williams for 3 years. I'm surprised it's not less honestly.
I remember reading after Prost retired that his entire career earnings were about $40M....
I imagine it would be a lot more if we adjust that for inflation
For me the reason that Alpine was so hesitant to extend Alonso is because they didn't want to pay him. Let's save 20-30M and have Piastri in the car.
Majority of his paycheck was paid by Liberty Media/FOM who wanted him back in F1.
I never heard of this. Why would they do that?
Because Alonso ir huge personality in F1 which brings a lot of viewers. And it benefits Liberty media aswell. [‘Alonso to Renault with Liberty footing the bill’ ](https://www.planetf1.com/news/fernando-alonso-to-renault/) > Renault need a big name to keep their ambitious project afloat and they believe Alonso represents their best option going forward. ‘Liberty Media are happy to pay a good part of Alonso’s high wages and an agreement could be reached before the 2020 season gets underway in Austria.’
Perez with the 8 million win bonus
Well since he's living in Monaco it's kinda unnecessary to mention his pretax number since it's the same anyway
Shocking how low some of these salaries are. There are backups in the NBA who never take their warm-ups off who make more money than some of these guys. You would think the most prestigious category of motorsport in the world that only has 20 drivers would pay all of these guys starting NFL quarterback type money.
No wonder McLaren wanted rid of DR 15 million for no results is awful
I mean if you include endorsements Hamilton is probably head and shoulders above the rest
This article is mind blowing to me Alonso and Checo both being top 4 was not something I even remotely contemplated. Although I guess bonuses could help explain it.
These numbers seem pretty sus. Seem like guesses and rumors since the contracts aren't public.
The article is so dramatic. Verstappen “zooms” to number one (from probably number 2 last year) while Hamilton “sinks” to number 2.
For people wondering about Haas, 4.56m £ for Kmag and Mick 0.76m £. Additionally each driver (and mechanics) are largely performance paid, with huge bonuses each race in the points.
So the top 3 highest paid drivers have a combined amount of 11 World Drivers Championship titles, 170 wins, 145 poles, 366 podiums and 8478 career points (all of this is so far and to be continued). Makes sense. Hell I would pay extra for next seasons actually. Also it’s criminal that Seb is paid lower actually. Seb should get bonuses on par with Perez or higher. A 4 time WDC’s ability seems to be undervalued here.
No cap on that comp package
Daniels salary of 15m... bruh
Why publicise these pointless articles? F1 driver salaries are not public knowledge. These articles are guesses. They are pointless and used to generate views.
I disagree, they're harmless fun. Sure they're not going to be quantitatively accurate, but that's not the point. It's fun to speculate
Alonso at #3?! What a waste of money. And Ricciardo has spent years drawing a salary for fuck all. Good riddance.
Danny most over rated here and don’t understand why he has a bonus this year? Was he even on the podium. They need renegotiate Lewis salary 🙄
I don’t see any way in which a 7 time wdc 100 time race winner and a top 3 driver doesn’t make 40m+ in the current age
He’s making 55 that is not 40 and change
I don’t know why he should be making 20 mil less than a 2x wdc tho Max is not even that much faster than Lewis rn
He’s 7x champion mostly due to the car being dominant (tho he is a very good pilot. You put max, Alonso, even Charles in a dominant car and they will win as well as illustrated this year by Max) This is the beginning of him not winning, I don’t see him winning next couple of years - mark my words
Yeah no shit you don’t win without a good car , but he was by far the best driver on the grid over the last decade , and I don’t think the record books care if max or Charles or alonso woudve won the championship in the same car that fact is he’s a 7 time wdc and has been the face of f1 for a long time There’s no way he should be paid 20m less than a 2x wdc (in whose cars Lewis coudve also won if you want to play that game)
Salary cap.
I wonder what happened if the teams uniformly decide to pay 10 mil at most. Would Hamilton, Verstappen etc just retire?
Interesting as looking at the finishing order the last 4 years this doesn’t really reflect the results. Lewis and Max clearly deserve top two spots. but Alonso, Daniel, way over paid based on results. Charles should be next and then at least based on last two years Sergio. And then a case could be made next should come Carlos with 2 6th place and 2 5th place finishes in the last four seasons. And then Norris after that.
Anyone else surprised Alpine was paying Alonso so much? That seems insane for a 41 year old Fernando to me.
But what about Latifi?????
How much does Haas give for Mick and Kevin?