How Much are F1 Drivers Paid 💰 2026 Edition

Added: 2026-05-01

[00:00:00]Which F1 driver is paid the most to race? Formula 1 teams are very good at keeping the contracts that they have with their drivers secret because drivers are constantly negotiating new salaries and also talking to other teams on the grid about their future plans.

[00:00:15]Plus, F1 drivers get paid not only a base salary, but also extra bonuses based on performances. So, finding out exactly how much F1 drivers earn from racing is almost impossible. But, we can get a pretty good estimation. As you would expect, F1's newest driver also gets paid the least with Arvid Lindblad most likely being paid around $1 million for the season. His teammate Lawson, along with some of the other newer drivers to the full-time grid in Colapinto, Bamford, and Bortoleto, all reportedly get paid between 2 and 3 million dollars. Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas's return to the grid with Cadillac's he's then paid about the same as Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, which is supposedly around $5 million.

[00:00:54]Ocon and Hülkenberg earn around [music] $6 million, Alex Albon around $8 million at Williams, and Pierre Gasly earns around $12 million at Alpine, which moves us up into the top 10 highest earners starting with Kimi Antonelli, Carlos Sainz, and Lance Stroll, who all reportedly earn close to $13 million.

[00:01:12]We then have to double that, though, to reach George Russell and Fernando Alonso, who get paid around $26 million by their teams. With the top five earners being Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri, who get paid around $30 million, McLaren's new world champion Lando Norris supposedly earns around $55 million for the season, and to no surprise, the top two are Lewis Hamilton, who [music] has a roughly $70 million contract with Ferrari, and Max Verstappen, who earns the most on the grid with his pay being around $75 million.