Featured Image Credit: Getty and Twitter/@Leclerc news
Topics: Formula 1, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, McLaren
Will Evans
Topics: Formula 1, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, McLaren
The highest-paid drivers in F1 for 2023 have been exclusively revealed in a list by Forbes.
Unsurprisingly the ever-dominant Max Verstappen tops the leader board with the Red Bull Racing driver receiving an annual salary and bonus of $70 million.
That's an increase of $10 million on his pre tax earning in 2022, and sees him take the top spot for the second straight season ahead of Mercedes driver and long-time rival Lewis Hamilton.
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Hamilton will take home an estimated $55 million this years which is the same amount as he earnt last season.
Unlike the lists Forbes produce for other sports, this takes into account earnings from other business deals and endorsements.
There's been a significant increase in commercial interest in Formula One recently, with stars featuring in the highly popular Netflix series 'Drive to Survive' and the sport hosting races in new glamorous locations such as Miami and Las Vegas.
The sport introduced a cost cap in 2021 to make the grid fairer and fuel competition. However, driver salaries aren't currently affected.
In reality this means that the best drivers end up at the teams who can afford to pay them the most therefore failing in the aim to bridge the game between the top teams and those lower down the grid.
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Veteran Fernando Alonso places third on the list with annual earnings estimated around $30 million, with Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez coming fourth with $26 million in estimated earnings.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc rounds out the top five on $19 million and McLaren's Lando Norris is the next Brit to appear after Hamilton with $15 million in earnings.
Carlos Sainz is seventh $14 million and Mercedes driver George Russell is surprisingly low on the list in eighth with earnings of $9 million.
Alpine's Pierre Gasly and McLaren's Oscar Piastri are tied in ninth place with an estimated earnings of $8 million each in 2023.
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Piastri is the youngest driver on the grid but has impressed greatly at McLaren, and a bidding war with Alpine prior to his arrival in F1 may explain the high salary for his age.