Max Verstappen dominates F1 on the track and in the bank as the sport's 10 top earners collect an estimated $317 million in salary and bonus this year.
By Brett Knight, Our Website Staff
In 2024, Formula 1's Most Generously Compensated Racing Pilots
Following an incredibly dominant season in Formula 1 history in 2023, with 19 wins in 22 Grand Prix races, Max Verstappen faced a much tougher challenge this year. He only managed to secure the drivers’ championship by a relatively small margin of 63 points in the standings. However, when it comes to his paychecks, Red Bull Racing's 27-year-old star is extending his lead on the field.
For the third consecutive year, Verstappen is once again crowned as the highest-paid driver on the track, with an estimated earnings of $75 million in 2024. This includes a series-record $60 million in salary and $15 million in performance bonuses. This puts him a significant $18 million ahead of his long-time rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes—who is estimated to have earned a salary of $55 million and bonuses of $2 million at the age of 39—and further widens the gap from $15 million in 2023 and $5 million in 2022.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who claimed the first four Grand Prix victories of his career this year and threatened Verstappen for the championship, finished third in the earnings race with an estimated $35 million. This marks an increase from sixth place and a salary of $15 million last year. The 25-year-old Brit signed a contract extension in January, which is believed to have boosted his salary (to $12 million, according to Our Website estimates) more than double his 2023 salary, but the main difference was his $23 million in bonuses this year.
Formula 1 driver compensation figures are rarely made public, but contracts are typically understood to be performance-based. Established drivers at top teams receive a large guaranteed salary, along with bonuses for race victories or championships. Drivers with less experience or who race for smaller teams generally receive smaller salaries but can earn significant bonuses for winning races or securing points in the standings.
Unlike Our Website's lists of the highest-paid players in sports such as soccer or the NBA, the F1 earnings ranking excludes endorsement income, focusing solely on the sports' salaries and bonuses. Drivers' obligations to their teams and their teams' sponsors leave them with limited opportunities to pursue personal deals. Verstappen, for instance, is estimated to have made $5 million from his business ventures over the last 12 months. This pales in comparison to the earnings of some other global sports stars listed on Our Website's 2024 list of the world's highest-paid athletes.
However, the drivers are not struggling financially. The combined earnings of the top 10 Formula 1 earners totaled $317 million on the track in 2024, according to Our Website estimates, a 23% increase from the $258 million earned in 2023 and the highest mark in the history of the Our Website F1 earnings ranking.
Two main factors are responsible for the increase in salaries. First, Formula 1 has never been more popular, with the series' central revenue hitting $3.2 billion in 2023, a 25% increase from the previous year, according to Liberty Media's annual earnings release. This means more prize money for the 10 teams on the grid, who are also seeing improved sponsorship opportunities. The influx of cash is pushing up the value of the teams, to an average of $1.88 billion in Our Website's most recent ranking, while also providing them with more funds to spend on their drivers.
Meanwhile, drivers are benefiting from the series' cost cap, which was introduced in 2021. The system limits how much teams can spend on designing and building their cars, but driver compensation is not included in the budget calculation, allowing the wealthiest teams to spend extravagantly to differentiate themselves from their rivals.
Expect next year's F1 ranking to continue the upward trend after a series of signings and extensions around the paddock. This includes Charles Leclerc, who signed a new deal with Ferrari in January that is believed to include a substantial raise for 2025. It also includes his new teammate, Hamilton, who shocked the racing world when he announced in February that he would leave Mercedes for Ferrari next year.
Hamilton posted on Instagram that driving in Ferrari red would “fulfill another childhood dream,” but don’t entirely rule out the financial component to the move: Our Website estimates the contract will send him soaring back ahead of Verstappen to set an F1 salary record.
#1 • $75M
Max Verstappen
Team: Red Bull Racing | Nationality: Netherlands | Age: 27
Salary: $60M | Bonuses: $15M
Verstappen waited until the season's third-to-last Grand Prix, in Las Vegas last month, to secure the drivers' championship, four races later than in 2023. Despite this delay, he remains the sport's most dominant driver, having won four consecutive titles. At just 27, he's already discussed retirement publicly several times. "I have a contract until 2028," Verstappen, the youngest driver ever to reach 200 career Formula 1 races, recently shared with Road & Track. "I'll be 31 years old at the end of it. Of course that's still very young, but of course I started when I was 17—that's a long time in Formula 1." Verstappen mentioned that his longevity would depend on his enjoyment of driving an F1 car under new technical specifications starting in 2026. He added, "I don't have this desire to win eight or nine titles." However, this doesn't mean he'll stop racing entirely; Verstappen has expressed interest in competing in 24-hour races at Le Mans and Daytona, amongst other auto-racing formats.
#2 • $57M
Hamilton
Team: Mercedes | Nationality: United Kingdom | Age: 39
Salary: $55M | Bonuses: $2M
Hamilton recorded a miraculous comeback victory at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix in July and was promoted to first place at the Belgian Grand Prix due to a disqualification—his first victories since 2021—but his season with Mercedes was largely disappointing. Hamilton, a seven-time Formula 1 champion turning 40 next month, recently told reporters that he "drastically underestimated how difficult it would be" to leave Mercedes, his team for the past 12 years. His move to Ferrari unites the sport's most accomplished driver with its most respected team. Brands have already started speculating that Hamilton—who has long-term partnerships with sponsors including Tommy Hilfiger—could attract new marketing revenue to Ferrari.
#3 • $35M
Norris
Team: McLaren | Nationality: United Kingdom | Age: 25
Salary: $12M | Bonuses: $23M
Norris didn't quite manage to surpass Verstappen for the drivers' title, but with 13 podium finishes this year, he played a significant role in leading McLaren to an unexpected constructors' championship, their first since 1998. "I wasn't quite ready to take on Red Bull and Max," Norris told reporters last month. "But since the summer break, I've been getting closer to where I need to be, and I think I'm almost there." He'll have a strong support system. Norris partnered with Silverstone in September to create a "Landostand," a dedicated grandstand at Turn 15 for the British Grand Prix in July 2025. Fans snapped up all 10,000 tickets—priced at around $600 for three days' admission—in less than two hours.
#4 • $27.5M
Alonso
Team: Aston Martin | Nationality: Spain | Age: 43
Salary: $24M | Bonuses: $3.5M
After a strong 2023, finishing fourth in the driver standings, Alonso struggled for much of this season, dropping to ninth as Aston Martin collected less than a third of the points of a constructor. During a particularly challenging two-race stretch in the fall, he dealt with a throat infection and injured his shoulder on Brazil's bumpy track. However, the popular Spaniard—the first Formula 1 driver ever to enter more than 400 Grand Prix races—admitted to seriously considering his future, but ultimately decided in April to sign an extension with Aston Martin through 2026.
#5 • $27M
Leclerc
Team: Ferrari | Nationality: Monaco | Age: 27
Salary: $15M | Bonuses: $12M
Leclerc, who finished third in the driver standings this year, just 18 points behind runner-up Norris, is garnering a lot of attention as he prepares to team up with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari next year. But during practice at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Leclerc shared a memorable moment with his younger brother, Arthur—a Ferrari development driver—making them the first siblings to drive in F1 as teammates.
#6 • $23M
Russell
Team: Mercedes | Nationality: United Kingdom | Age: 26
Salary: $15M | Bonuses: $8M
Russell is committed to Mercedes through next season, having signed an extension in August 2023. With Lewis Hamilton replaced in the driver lineup by 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the 26-year-old Britnow appears to be Mercedes' clear number one driver. "I think it's going to be a positive change for everyone," Russell, who finished sixth in the standings and won two races, recently told ESPN. "These last three years, it just hasn't been working for any of us."
#7 • $22M
Piastri
Team: McLaren | Country of Origin: Australia | Age: 23
Remuneration: $5M base salary, $17M in bonuses
After an impressive rookie year in 2023, Piastri took it up a notch in this season, clinching the first two Grand Prix victories of his career in Hungary and Azerbaijan, and ending up in fourth place in the driver standings. He signed an extension to his contract with McLaren in September 2023, just before securing his first podium finish, confirming his commitment to race with the team for at least the next two years.
#8 • $19.5M
Sergio Pérez
Team: Red Bull Racing | Country of Origin: Mexico | Age: 34
Remuneration: $12M base salary, $7.5M in bonuses
Despite signing a two-year contract extension in June, Pérez's performance for the remainder of the season was far from satisfactory, causing him to slide down to eighth place in the standings. This disappointing performance has led to speculation about his future with Red Bull, with Helmut Marko, the team's longtime advisor, hinting that Red Bull might be looking for a new teammate for Max Verstappen for the 2024 season. Pérez himself admitted that his return in 2025 is not guaranteed, saying, "We'll see what happens in the coming days."
#9 • $19M
Carlos Sainz
Team: Ferrari | Country of Origin: Spain | Age: 30
Remuneration: $10M base salary, $9M in bonuses
Pulling off a fifth-place finish in the driver standings this year, Sainz faced a tough challenge when Lewis Hamilton moved to Ferrari. He overcame this by joining Williams for the 2024 season, expressing his excitement about the opportunity to prove himself again. "I have an ego as a driver, and I couldn't understand it at the time," he told Sky Sports. "Williams is the one that has backed me up from the beginning."
#10 • $12M
Pierre Gasly
Team: Alpine | Country of Origin: France | Age: 28
Remuneration: $10M base salary, $2M in bonuses
Scoring points was a challenge for Gasly and Alpine for most of the season, but he managed to improve his position with a third-place finish in Brazil and a fifth-place finish in Qatar, attributing this success in part to a change in differential settings. His contract extension keeps him with the team through 2026.
As few Formula 1 driver salaries are publicly disclosed, Our Website estimated on-track compensation in partnership with Our Website.com contributor Caroline Reid from the data firm Formula Money. The estimates are based on financial documents, legal filings, press reports, and conversations with industry insiders. All pay figures are rounded to the nearest half-million.
Drivers usually receive a base salary along with bonuses for points scored or race or championship wins. The size of the bonuses depends on the team's size and the driver's experience. Off-track compensation, including endorsements, is not included in this ranking. Our Website does not account for taxes or agents' fees.
- Max Verstappen, the highest-paid driver in Formula 1, secured his third consecutive title as the highest-paid driver with an estimated earnings of $75 million in 2024, consisting of a $60 million salary and $15 million in performance bonuses.
- Lando Norris, who finished third in the earnings race, had an impressive year with 4 Grand Prix victories, a contract extension, and an estimated $35 million in earnings, marking an increase from his sixth-place finish and $15 million salary in 2023.
- The 10 top earners in Formula 1 collectively made an estimated $317 million on the track in 2024, an increase of 23% from $258 million in 2023, led by Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Lando Norris.
- Fernando Alonso, who struggled in the 2024 season, still managed to receive an estimated $27.5 million, despite falling to ninth place in the driver standings, thanks to his strong performance in the 2023 season.
- Charles Leclerc, who finished third in the 2024 driver standings, is set to join Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025, creating excitement and driving up expectations for his future earnings.
