When you look at the current crop of F1 drivers, you can immediately tell that money is not even an object. Max Verstappen is cruising around in his own sportscars, wearing Tag Heuers and dating girls that would normally not give him a second glance – at 19 years of age! What were you doing at 19? Whatever it was that I was doing back then, it involved cheap wine and bumming cigarettes.
He’s not exactly the highest paid driver, either. In fact, he is far afield from the salaries being granted to the drivers who’ve been in the sport for longer periods… here are the top 5 big cheeses among the current crop of drivers:
5. Valtteri Bottas – $8.5 million/year
We can only imagine what Valtteri felt when he saw Toto’s number flash across his iPhone’s screen at the end of last year. We can imagine it was somewhere in between ecstasy and sheer pleasure – Nico was out of the way, Alonso had been put through to voicemail, and Hamilton was totally cool with having anyone other than Nico or Alonso in his team. Valtteri would’ve been told during that phone call that he would be earning his first pole position and race win in 2017 (as he would be driving the W08), as well as something in the region of $8.5 million for his year at Mercedes. Not too shabby a deal, if you ask me! This increase means that Valtteri would be earning around $5 million more than he did in 2016 with Williams (and would be tasting champagne a lot more often, too!).
4. Kimi Raikkonen – $7 million/year (+ performance bonuses)
Kimi Raikkonen has earned a lot of money during his tenure as a Formula 1 driver, and even though he’s taken a massive pay cut for this year, he’s still up there in the top 5 earners on the current grid. The possibility of bonuses depending on his results is also there – though he would need to outclass his younger and arguably sharper teammate in order to qualify for these, and it’s unlikely given Ferrari’s history that they would make this easy for him. He probably isn’t too worried though!
3. Lewis Hamilton – $31 million/year (+ performance bonuses of up to $10 million)
F1’s very own pop star earns some serious cash as a basic salary, and as long as Mercedes builds him the right car (which they do), he’s eligible for massive bonuses as well. With this kind of money, Lewis could retire tomorrow and his great-grandchildren could live a more than comfortable life. As long as he doesn’t get the sun (Baku ’16) and/or dirt (Monaco ’14) in his eyes, he’s set for life.
Fernando Alonso – $40 million
Would you drive a McLaren for $40 million? He may not be winning any races (or scoring any points for that matter), but Fernando is almost certainly laughing all the way to the bank. This enormous salary is approximately 133 times greater than that of his teammate, which may at least offer some kind of flattery to ‘Nando this year – unlike his car. To get an idea of how much money this is, let’s just say that I would have to work for 4500 years in order to earn that amount of money on my salary. What am I doing with my life?
1. Sebastian Vettel – $50 million (+ bonuses)
It’s rare to see Sebastian Vettel not smiling these days – once again he’s in a front running car, occupying the highest step of the podium fairly regularly, receiving loads of praise from the Italian media, oh and he’s taking home $50 million a year. I can not think of a better job to have. In fact, name a better job – I’ll wait! These drivers really are living the dream. They get to travel the world, earn millions as well as drive the most powerful and awesome race cars on the planet. There are many supplementary benefits to the aforementioned too, but let’s keep it PG.