Nico Rosberg’s retirement from the F1 caused string of changes in team lineups going into 2017 season and we take a look at every driver’s contract and salary details for 2017. Biggest change being Valtteri Bottas joining Mercedes on a 1 year deal where he will earn around £7 million a year with option to extend the contract to 2018.
Sebastian Vettel is the highest paid Formula 1 driver going into the 2017 F1 season with a record 3 year deal with Ferrari worth $150 million he is also one of the highest paid athlete/sportsman in the world. Lewis Hamilton also signed new 3 year deal to remain with Mercedez worth $31 million a-year guaranteed salary plus upto $10 million in bonuses making him second highest paid driver behind Vettle in 2017. Below is the list of contract and salary details of all formula 1 drivers in 2016 lineup.
We take a look at all Formula 1 drivers salaries and since there have been not many changes in team lineups but alot of new contract extensions has been signed ahead of 2017 season. Below is the details of every driver’s contract on 2016 lineup.
- Valtteri Bottas extended his contract with Mercedes for 2018 season with option to extend till 2019. He will be doubling his salary terms remain the same at £7 million a year with Mercedes thats 100% increase from his £3.5m deal with Williams in 2016.
- Kimi Raikonnen has signed 1 year contract extension for the third straight year to remain with Ferrari in 2018.
- Lewis Hamilton signed a 3-year contract extension in 2016 with Mercedes with pretty much the same basic yearly salary of $31 million a year (£20.9m) but with significant increase on grand prix and F1 title win bonuses which could take his yearly salary to $40 million a year (£28m) and he will remain with the team till 2019.
- Sebastian Vettel Vettel has signed a new 3-year deal with Ferrari to remain with the team till 2020 and his new contract will get him lower basic salary compared to his last contract but Ferrari included massive bonuses for race wins and championships. If Vettel wins 2018 F1 title he will be taking home $50 million (£33.4m) guaranteed in first year.
- Fernando Alonso signed contract extension with McLaren-Honda with an opt-out option for 2019. Alonso will be earning lower basic salary of $30 million a year compared to his massive last contract where he was earning in the region of $40 million a year.
- Daniel Ricciardo is heavily linked with Ferrari and believed to have already agreed verbal terms to join Ferrari in 2019. Ricciardo is in the last year of his current deal with Red Bull and at the end of 2018 he will be free to join any other team.
Following are the Formula 1 2018 Drivers Lineup plus their contract with their respective teams and of course reported yearly salaries and bonuses.
| DRIVER | YEARLY SALARY | CONTRACT |
| Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) | $50 million (£33.4m) guaranteed in first year, Basic $30m a year plus bonuses afterwards | 3 Years Deal (2018-20) |
| Fernando Alonso (McLaren) | Max $30 million a year including all bonuses (opt-out clause for 2019) | 1 Year Deal (2018) |
| Lewis Hamilton (Mercedez) | $31 million a year (£20.9m) basic salary plus performance bonuses upto $10m a year | new 3 year deal |
| Kimi Raikonen (Ferrari) | Took a big pay-cut with guaranteed $7 million plus performance bonuses of max $10 million | Signed 1 year extension for 2018 season |
| Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) | Valtteri will earn around $8.5 million a year (£7m) including bonuses with switch to Mercedes | 1 Year Deal (2018) |
| Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) | $6.5 million a year (£5.2m) guaranteed salary plus bonuses Re-negotiated financial terms. | New 2 year deal from 2017 to 2018 |
| Felipe Massa (Williams) | $3.5 million a year – came out of retirement and took a paycut to drive for Williams | 1 year extension for 2017 |
| Nico Hulkenberg (Renault F1) | $3 million a year | Joins Renault F1 with 1 year deal |
| Max Verstappen (Red Bull) | $3 milion a year – Although Verstappen already had long-term contract with Red Bull, he re-negotiated financially | Multi-year contract with Red Bull |
| Sergio Perez (Force India) | $2.5 million a year (£2m) | 2017 will be last year into his multi-year contract. |
| Romain Grosjean (HAAS F1) | $1.5 million a year – Signed one year deal with HAAS F1 | Signed new 1 year for 2017 season. |
| Kevin Magnussen (HAAS F1) | $1 million a year – Signed one year deal with HAAS F1 after rejecting 1 year contract extension from Renault F1 | Signed new 1 year for 2017 season. |
| Jolyon Palmer (Renault F1) | $1 million a year | Retained for another year (2017) |
| Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) | $750,000 a year – Retained by Toro Rosso after intense speculations of them letting Kvyat go in 2016. 2017 could be his last chance as f1 driver. | Retained for 2017 season. |
| Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) | $750,000 a year. Extended his contract for 2017 season 2017 will be his third consecutive season with the team. | |
| Esteban Ocon (Force India) | $185,000 a year – Force India promoted him to partner Sergio Perez after Hulkenburg left the team. | Signed new 1 year for 2017 season. |
| Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) | $300,000 a year plus bonuses | 1 year deal for 2017 |
| Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) | $285,000 a year | Signed 1 year extension for 2017 |
| Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber) | $150,000 a year | Joined Sauber for 2017 season. |
| Lance Stroll (Williams) | Not known. Some reports suggest his father Lawrence Stroll is investing $35 million to the team for Lance to drive for them. | 1 year deal for 2017. |
The difference in companies pay and brand establishment are pretty shocking. The placement of finishes and pay are as well interesting.
Yes they should even out the pay more, it would be better for both the sport, drivers and fans. Formula 1 would be more fun to watch if Mercedes and Ferrari did not have so much bigger budget than the rest. Red Bull and McLaren has big budgets too, but it is hard to see how lower budget teams like Sauber or Williams can keep up.
Williams a low budget team?
rawr
50$ million is a nice motivator for winning.
Sauber is way too low for risking your life in a car
The differences in salaries not only amongst teams but every team mates is staggering.
Yeah its ridiculous if you ask me, in my opinion there is no way to justify that Hamilton and Vettel makes so much more than Grosjean and Raikkonen.
Whens the last time Grosjean or Raikkonen won a race?
I am somewhat dazzled by how little, by comparison with the front runners, the back markers make driving for teams with much smaller budgets. One can only hope that the back markers obtain a really state of the art safety chassis as they grind along in the dirty air bequeathed them by their very wealthy cousins. The money distribution in F1 needs a far more egalitarian structure than what is currently on display.
Lets face it, the winner of the race is almost always the car in P1 on the grid and there is usually only good racing at the front through the 1st, sometimes second turn. Baring disaster, the winner of the race is assured before the begining of the 2nd lap. The real racing for position is in the mid-pack where the dicing for just a few points is lethal and, let’s face it, far more entertaining than watching a Mercedes waltz away to a 20 second lead over the 2nd Mercedes or Red Bull.
For my money, I’d lavish much more on the mid-pack drivers who actually race each other. Teams like Force India, Haas, McClaren etc.
Yes you are absolutely right! Why do these global top car manufacturers, billion dollar corporations, let their top sporting divisions, where countless people work who were once headhunted by the best talentscouts, pay these drivers those insane amounts of money while instead they could hire any privateer that loves driving for much less money, why??
Well, i think that probably none of all the great privateers in the world could keep up at all with any of the F1 boys, and drivers like you and me couldn’t even keep up with any of all globals good race privateers.
Or do you really think you are the exception because you really love to drive? 😉
1 Dollar/Euro , would be enough , for driving such a car ( for me ) , for the over-payment
are you a better driver when you paid 50 million ? Ten million would do nicely , invest the rest for the somewhat poorer teams , still commercial value is so easy 21 x 3 hours your brand promoted for ( almost free ) all the newspapers ( for free ) all those sites ( for free ) maybe some one could calculate what is cost to play an commercial for 60 hours Approx ! ? Let alone that you buying a better Mercedes /Renault/Honda/ etc ………………. !
It’s like soccer! The more money you got the better your team is. Why wouldn’t Ferrari have a bigger budget than Honda? Cause the Ferrari is unattainable for most, making the elusive car more desirable hence bigger budgets. Look at baseball salary caps, does it make the game more fair? Or just let the poorer teams think they have a shot
F1 is a racket – these salaries are obscene when people in the world doing real work are being paid peanuts. It might be ok if they all got there on merit but 99% of them got there because they were already from rich enough families to indulge an outrageously expensive hobby. – eg Riccardo openly admitted he spent $1.5 mil getting to F1 — 99.99% of the population have no way to do that -so its not an open sport – its a closed club – only the rich can play. And then they go on to get many times richer with these obscene salaries, based on the myth that they are elite drivers – how can they be elite when 99.99% of the population cant afford to try! – F1 is a racket