How Much Is a Driver Worth?

[Tim Ling]

Ever wondered how much F1 drivers get paid? A report published by the newspaper El Mundo shows all!

Alonso takes home the biggest pay packets, earning almost double what Hamilton gets, and more than double his teammates salary. Ferrari also are still coughing up €16 for Kimi Raikkonen!



A big shock is that Webber (€4.2m) is earning far more than his teamate Vettel (2m). Could that be another reason why Vettel is trying so hard to prove he's better than Webber?

And right at the bottom Chandhok and Yamamoto prove that some drivers are in F1 for love. Or a chance to drive at a bigger team that can pay them.

Check out the full list:

1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari €30m 5th
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes €16m 2nd
3. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari €16m N/A
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari €14m 6th
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes €9m 4th
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes Grand Prix €8m 9th
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes Grand Prix €8m 7th
8. Robert Kubica Renault F1 €7.5m 8th
9. Rubens Barrichello Williams F1 €5.5m 11th
10. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing €4.2m 1st
11. Jarno Trulli Lotus Racing €3m 19th=
12. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing €2m 3rd
13. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus Racing €2m 19th=
14. Timo Glock Virgin Racing €1m 19th=
15. Nico Hülkenberg Williams F1 €700,000 15th
16. Pedro de la Rosa Sauber €500,000 17th
17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber €500,000 12th=
18. Vitaly Petrov Renault F1 €400,000 12th=
19. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso €400,000 18th
20. Sébastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso €400,000 16th
21. Adrian Sutil Force India F1 €200,000 10th
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India F1 €200,000 14th
23. Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing €200,000 19th=
24. Bruno Senna Hispania Racing €150,000 19th=
25. Karun Chandhok Hispania Racing €Nil 19th=
26. Sakon Yamamoto Hispania Racing €Nil 19th =

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Haha, so Ferrari is funding the WRC project of Kimi? Epic arrangement :thumb:

 

[Bruno Sousa Ferreira]

Just been comparing the two drivers of each team, and if you look at the two Renault boys, that is some gap, I am suprised that Button isn't closer to Hamilton in wages.
And I am suprised that the Lotus can pay that much to their drivers. And you have to give Karun and Sakon applause to be racing without pay (and more likely their paying to race).

 

[Sami Pesari]

lol kimi earns more than felipe for doing nothing :tongue:

 

[Austin Jordan]

yeah well weird thing is it's been proven for other pro drivers out of the sport can drive great in f1. valentino rossi from moto gp did great but also jeff gordon from nascar. both of them were very close to times set by the best of f1. here's jeff gordon at indianopolis posting a time 2 tenths slower than juan paublo montoya:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

No NASCAR driver can keep up in F1

 

[Danny Asbury]

I really don't like Nascar, but I wouldn't say that, Bram. I'm sure a few of the guys could do okay once they got their feet wet in the car.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I know was a bit of a bold statement. But I really believe none of the current drivers in Nascar are good enough to make it Europe in F1.

What do the best US drivers earn by the way?

 

[Eric Estes]

Hard to quantify, Bram, as most of the money in NASCAR is made via product endorsements, not driver contracts/winnings. (Which does lead to things like Dale Earnhart Jr. making by far the most money, and not even being a top-10 driver). For 2009, Jr. Made approximately $30M in endorsements/winnings/salary. Followed by Jeff Gordon $27M, Jimmie Johnson $23M, Tony Stewart $19M. In total, 10 drivers broke the $10M threshold. Contract Salary is usually quite small comparatively - Jr's Salary+Winnings were probably around $5M of that $30M last year. Current NASCAR drivers who may have had F1 potential (were they younger, or in one case, skinnier): Allmendinger, JPM (ok, cheating there), Stewart, Villenueve (cheating again), Gordon, Hornish (sort of cheating) and I would have been interested to see Kyle Busch try such a thing.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

Fernando will you marry me?

 

[Jose Borges]

Of course all of those numbers are impressive... but i think those numbers are ridiculous.
About 80% of humans live with less than an € per day...
It's almost pornographic that a guy that goes round a track for about two hours every 15 days gets paid those amounts.
At the very least, drivers should have social responsabilities towards their countries, for ex Spain has 20 % of unemployement... With all that money don't you think that Alonso could help that number be less shocking? I'm not saying that he would employ all of those 20% but it would be an example for politicians...
I don't know if he does something to help anyone anywhere or not but what the hell he won't read this...
I'm a motorsports fan, don't take me wrong. I watch them running every weekend and I think Schumacher was the very best driver ever and I wait every year for Le Mans 24 hours.
I'm just saying that those wages are crazy...
Almost all of us will work for about 40 years of our lifes and earn a misery compared to that...
Maybe all sports sould have a maximum wage like in NBA apart of contracts from advertisements and so....

Sorry for bothering you but this is what i think...

 

[Jose Borges]

Oh and by the way... I'm portuguese, the minimum wage per month here is about 475€ where 1 litre of petrol costs 1,40€ and I pay around 1000€ per year so i can be a teacher in the future which means TWO MONTHS of salary. So I state again... those numbers are ridiculous.

 

[Austin Jordan]

bram look at it this way: when your a young driver like me you have to decide which direction to go.are you gonna go to f1 or nascar. if i was really good at karting and ovals i would have to decide where i want to go. either way i'm gonna be good at both as long as i keep racing them. so i could be a nascar driver then one my friends takes me to a f1 test with his team. i still did a lot of road courses and i get a time as good or better than his.

 

[Maurice Hurkmans]

The wages are ridiculous...... if you compare them with other sports, even the best football player doesn't have a € 30 million wage per year.
Compared with other drivers Alonso gets overpaid imo, but hey......if Ferrari wants to pay that much.....be my guest. No wonder why their cars cost the works

If you average all the wages you'll get an average annual salary of 4.7 mil Euros. Not bad for driving a car

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

yea I'd like just those 150 00€ per year like Senna has

 

[Ryan Callan]

You can not point your finger at drivers - ALL of us here would accept being offered this much money - many drivers put it back into charity.

And of course they get paid more than football players - football players don't risk life and limb

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

True, and for that money you also throw away the last part of your social life. Pressure in F1 must be insane. Everything you do is put under a magnifying glass, with as result that almost all drivers look the same, talk the same (without actually saying something), smile the same. They cannot afford making any public mistakes (they think).

Bring on Rossi in F1 please and put him in one team with Alonse, that would be guaranteed good TV

 

[Ivan Mills]

Alonso gets gets paid what he is worth....30mil pounds/year sounds like a good deal 2 me

 

[Jose Borges]

poor poor f1 drivers lol
risking their lifes with the best chassis in the world where everything breaks except the cockpit...
What about soldiers?

Of course they can't make mistakes with those amounts. If you were his boss i think you'd be quite mad cause the guy doesn't win...
And I say drivers, engineers, directors almost everyone envolved is overpaid...

And if you see their lifes, almost everyone of them were born rich, got richer and will die in gold caskets...

That's why we race in online servers and they (drivers, engineers, directors...) get the tracks all over the world...
F1 is a sport for the elite, not for the general public like football or rugby or basketball

I really do think they give some to charity but i don't think they know to whom they are giving it...

 

[Ryan Callan]

Everything breaks except the cockpit?

Try telling that to Chris van der Drift, Felipe Massa and Henry Surtees.....

Of course everyone is overpaid - but then we as fans are the ones pouring that money in - maybe if we paid that money into taxes instead, soldiers would get paid more?

The world does not work in a fair way.