Lewis Hamilton, pictured here with Will Smith (right,) has raced to the top of F1’s all-time earnings league (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Lewis Hamilton has become the highest-paid driver in the history of Formula One according to research which reveals that his career earnings have accelerated to an estimated $489 million.
The 34 year-old Mercedes driver is the reigning champion and has won five titles since he joined F1 in 2007. Hamilton goes into today’s Bahrain Grand Prix second in the standings and if he wins the championship again this year he will be one short of Michael Schumacher’s record as F1’s most-successful driver.
Between 1994 and 2004 Schumacher won five F1 titles for Ferrari and two for a team which was owned by clothing company Benetton. He retired in 2012 but has remained in the public eye after being seriously injured in a skiing accident six years ago.
Schumacher’s salary peaked at an estimated $38 million and in 1999 he raced into pole position in the ranking of combined career earnings of F1 drivers. He held the record right up until this year when Hamilton overtook Schumacher after signing a new contract with Mercedes. It pays him around $50 million annually and, as the table below shows, this has driven his total salary and bonus payments to nearly $500 million without even including personal sponsorships.
Lewis Hamilton has overtaken Michael Schumacher to have the highest career earnings in F1 history
Away from the track, Hamilton is famous for his colorful clothing and celebrity friends who stretch from the Kardashians and Justin Bieber to the actress Kate Hudson. In 2015 Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff told us that “Lewis is probably the only superstar in Formula One” and this has led to him becoming the face of campaigns from brands including Tommy Hilfiger and audio equipment maker Bose.
Unlike many other athletes, F1 drivers get the vast majority of their income from their salary rather than personal sponsorships. For nearly 20 years this author has been part of a team which has produced estimates of these pay packets and, surprisingly, several drivers who retired more than a decade ago are still in the top ten ranking of career earnings. There is good reason for this.
The first is Michael Schumacher’s brother Ralf who retired from F1 in 2007 but still has the seventh-highest tally of career earnings. Ralf began his decade-long F1 career in 1997 when he joined the independent team Jordan. Two years later he graduated to former F1 champions Williams where he won six races. However, his biggest pay-day came in 2005 when Japanese auto giant Toyota poached him to rev up its struggling F1 team. Toyota paid him an estimated $20 million annually but he failed to win a race for the team and left after just two years.
Similarly, Canadian Jacques Villeneuve won the F1 title for Williams in 1997 but the biggest boost to his fortunes came in 1999 when he drove for the fledgling British American Racing team which was run by his manager Craig Pollock. Villeneuve was reportedly paid $16 million per year bringing his career earnings to an estimated $115 million. He too didn’t win any races for his biggest benefactor and retired from F1 in 2006.
The total salary standings show the benefit of winning the world championship as seven of the top ten have held F1’s highest honor. The exceptions are Ralf Schumacher as well as Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello who were both team-mates of his brother Michael at Ferrari.
However, winning the title doesn’t guarantee a driver a place in the top ten. One of the most surprising omissions is Nico Rosberg who was Hamilton’s team-mate at Mercedes until he unexpected announced his retirement in 2016. Rosberg put the brakes on his F1 career just five days after winning his first championship so didn’t have a chance to capitalise on his success through an increased salary. It remains to be seen how long it will be before Hamilton follows him.
Hamilton’s contract expires at the end of next year which is also when Mercedes’ agreement to race in F1 comes to a close. Wolff has said that Mercedes could be driven out of the series as F1’s new owner Liberty Media plans to reduce its prize money and introduce a cap on spending. It also hopes to extend the calendar from the current tally of 21 races to nearer the limit of 25.
In November Hamilton said this could bring the checkered flag down on his career as the more races there are, the less free time the drivers have. “It’s most likely I’m not going to be here when it gets to 25 that’s for sure.” It could be tough to convince him to stay as there is no doubt he doesn’t need the money.
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