Fans just realising how much drivers have to pay to race in F1 each season with Max Verstappen facing huge bill

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and all 18 other F1 drivers must adhere to a strict FIA rule before they can race in the 2025 season.

Hamilton will contest his first race as a Ferrari driver at the Australian Grand Prix on March 26.

The seven-time world champion, who signed for the Scuderia on a multi-year contract from the beginning of 2025, has spent this week acquainting himself with his new team and new surroundings in Maranello.

Hamilton drove a 2023 Ferrari at the team's Fiorano test track on Wednesday, and he and team-mate mate Charles Leclerc will take part in a Pirelli tyre test later this month.

But before any full-time driver can take part in an official F1 session once the season gets underway in March, they must pay a yearly fee.

Lewis Hamilton has been in Maranello this week (Image: Getty)

The payment relates to a driver's FIA Super Licence, which enables them to compete in sanctioned Grands Prix.

Drivers must earn enough points through their championship finishing positions in junior categories, IndyCar or the World Endurance Championship to qualify for a Super Licence. Once they have amassed enough points and complete a season of F1, however, they will automatically earn one for every subsequent season that they are signed to compete in.

According to Speedcafe, each of the 20 F1 drivers - including rookies Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli - will have to pay a standard fee of €11,453 for their Super Licence to compete in the 2025 season.

But the FIA also implements a system where drivers must pay an extra fee for each point they earned during the 2024 season.

The per-point fee is said to stand at €2,443, meaning Drivers' Champion Max Verstappen must pay €1,067,591 on top of his standard fee after earning 437 points last season.

Hamilton, meanwhile, will have to pay an additional €544,789 on top of his standard fee after earning 223 points.

The Brit will not technically have to pay the fee as it is traditionally covered by the teams themselves - something Verstappen confirmed ahead of the 2024 season, when he had to pay a staggering additional fee of €1,207,500 after collecting a record-breaking 575 points in 2023.

He said: "I do think there should be some normal ratio in that [the costs per driver]. But you know, things like that get written down, and I don't think anybody expected that there would end up being that many points scored."