F1 Driver Salaries: Hamilton Top With $57,000,000 Deal

[Paul Jeffrey]

Formula One driver salaries for 2019 have been revealed, and unsurprisingly it is Lewis Hamilton at the top of the list - set to earn a staggering $57m basic wage this year.

When a driver can boast no less than five World Championship trophies in his cabinet back home, it is unsurprising that Grand Prix teams are willing to shell out some serious cash to secure their services for the next Formula One season - and having done just that during his 10 year stay in the top flight, Lewis Hamilton appears to have earned himself the privilege of a nice fat $57m pay cheque from his Mercedes employer next season.

With Hamilton topping both the success charts and pay scales, next up is his long time title rival and Ferrari number one Sebastien Vettel - the German raking in an impressive $45,000,000 for services to the Scuderia in 2019, some $41,500,000 more than his new for this season teammate Charles Leclerc! Who says experience doesn't get rewarded in Grand Prix racing?!?!

Big mover in the pay department for 2019 is the newly decked in yellow Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian moving over to Renault for the season ahead in search of a new challenge, and 17,000,000 more dollars in his bank account - incidentally leaving him a nice $3.5m boost over and above his former Red Bull teammate Verstappen, fourth on the list of earners this year.

Notable bargains for the year ahead include Robert Kubica, taking home "just" $570,000, and fellow comeback kid Daniil Kvyat, the never say die Russian fetching in $300,000 for his third shot at glory with Toro Rosso.

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - $57,000,000
2. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - $45,000,000
3. Daniel Ricciardo - Renault - $17,000,000
4. Max Verstappen - Red Bull - $13,500,000
5. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - $8,500,000
6. Kimi Räikkönen - Sauber - $4,500,000
7. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - $4,500,000
8. Carlos Sainz - McLaren - $4,000,000
9. Charles Leclerc - Ferrari - $3,500,000
10. Sergio Perez - Racing Point - $3,500,000
11. Romain Grosjean - Haas - $1,800,000
12. Pierre Gasly - Red Bull - $1,400,000
13. Lance Stroll - Racing Point - $1,200,000
14. Kevin Magnussen - Haas - $1,200,000
15. Robert Kubica - Williams - $570,000
16. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - $300,000
17. Lando Norris - McLaren - $260,000
18. Antonio Giovinazzi - Sauber - $230,000
19. George Russell - Williams - $180,000
20. Alexander Albon - Toro Rosso - $170,000

2019 F1 driver salary details courtesy of Give Me Sport.

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[CC]

$57,000,000 wow

 

[rubaru]

Say what you will about the talent. Toro Rosso and Williams got off CHEAP!!

 

[eg01st]

Imagine what would racing be like if they had to pay for crashing from salaries

 

[Will Mazeo]

Wonder what would happen if they include driver sallary in the budget cap. Teams would have to look a lot more for talent that way. Not sure how fair it is to include it in the budget tho

 

[Medilloni]

Ouch! Bet Hulkenberg has his nose out of joint, DR $17,000,000 and Hulk $4,500,000. tbh I think DR is probably quicker, but not by that much

 

[homecalendar]

Now it is absolutely clear who is first in the team and who just serves.

 

[pcraenme]

17 million for Ricciardo at Renault! So now we know another reason for his surprise move to Renault , who seem to be spending a lot more on driver salaries than Red Bull this year. Let’s hope Renault will still have enough money to build a competitive car for Daniel and Nico this year. With this big salary difference between Daniel and Nico, I really hope Nico will be the faster driver of the two this year, just because I don’t think Daniel is that much better than Nico. Either way, I hope both can score some podiums this year.

 

[VRTSmith]

im guessing stroll's 1.2 mil is how much he pays for his seat?

 

[Majuh]

So, let's see...

RaceDepartment copied from Give Me Sport.
Give Me Sport copied from GP Fans.
GP Fans copied from F1 Weekends.
F1 Weekends copied from Sportskeeda.
Sportskeeda copied from Racing Elite.
Racing Elite basically says everything has only been estimated.

That's sports journalism in 2019, folks.

 

[Sporadik]

Poor Valtteri is underpaid IMO

 

[numbersevenhull]

£57,000,000 divided by 365 divided by 24 = you will cry

 

[Dobermann92]

I wonder what the W Series payments will be. That must be equal for all of the women alright?

 

[RufGTI]

Stroll be like: “Guys, I can pay myself as much salary as I want!“

 

[paracletus]

How have they found this out, or is it educated guesswork.

 

[michelforest]

Hmmm... I am very surprised by some of these salaries. Some of these drivers earn far less than the minimum salary in pro leagues such as the NHL, the NFL, etc. The salaries of the rookie drivers are surprisingly small. (By small, I hope people understand that everything is relative... I would not mind earning Russell's salary!)

I naively thought that the minimum salary of a F1 driver was $500,000... Also, I expected someone like Grosjean to make around $4M or so. As for Raikonnen, I wonder how much of a paycut he got by going to Sauber.

 

[Durge Driven]

Ferrari and Red Bull have stars of the future
Mercedes should have brought out George Russell
Reckon he would give Lewis a run for his money

 

[Marc Collins]

A very sad list when you look at the talent vs. dollar spread. I have no problem with Hamilton or Vettel being at the top, but the spread between the top two and the bottom six is ludicrous--even by sports standards.

 

[BazzaLB]

So Hamilton earns 8,000,000.00 more than all the drivers from Max Verstappen down put together.

 

[Durge Driven]

A very sad list when you look at the talent vs. dollar spread. I have no problem with Hamilton or Vettel being at the top, but the spread between the top two and the bottom six is ludicrous--even by sports standards.

More ludicrous, how much is danger money in the equation
I mean each life has the same value........ apparently not