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Lando Norris may be F1 champion on the track, but it’s a different story in the race to financial supremacy as the sport’s top ten earners revved up an estimated $363 million in salary and bonuses this year.
The high-octane drama of this year’s Formula 1 championship reached its crescendo in the final race of the season. Lando Norris, with a strategic third-place finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, clinched the 2025 drivers’ title. In doing so, he bested his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, and the formidable Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who had been the reigning champion for four consecutive years. This victory not only earned Norris the championship trophy but also an impressive bonus estimated to be around $10 million.
Factoring in his estimated $18 million salary and an additional $29.5 million from on-track performance incentives, Norris’s total earnings for the season sum up to $57.5 million. Despite this hefty sum, he finds himself in third place in the financial standings of F1 drivers for 2025.
Leading the financial race is the legendary Lewis Hamilton, who, after a celebrated 12-year tenure with Mercedes, joined Ferrari. Hamilton set a new benchmark with an estimated $70 million salary, complemented by $500,000 in bonuses, placing him ahead of Norris. Yet, it is Max Verstappen who continues to dominate financially, topping the earnings chart for the fourth year in a row with an estimated total compensation of $76 million. This amount includes a $65 million salary and $11 million in bonuses for the 28-year-old Dutch racing phenom.
This season, the top ten highest-paid drivers in Formula 1 collectively amassed an estimated $363 million on the track. This figure reflects a notable 15% increase from the previous year’s total of $317 million and an astounding 72% surge since Forbes began their earnings rankings in 2021.
Among those benefiting from increased earnings is Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who secured the fifth spot with an estimated $30 million, up from $27 million. This uptick in his earnings came after he signed a lucrative new contract last year, boosting his salary significantly.
Notably absent from this year’s financial rankings are Sergio Pérez, who lost his Red Bull seat, and Pierre Gasly, who endured a challenging season at Alpine, impacting his ability to earn performance bonuses. Their departures from the list have paved the way for two new entrants, marking a shift in the lineup of F1’s financial elite.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll is No. 8 this year with an estimated $13.5 million. That number might seem high given the 27-year-old Canadian’s pedestrian racing results—he finished 16th in the driver standings this season with 33 points—but it reflects a revelation from his team’s public financial filings. Because Stroll is the son of billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin had to disclose his compensation of $12.3 million during the 2024 season, up from $5.6 million in 2023.
Meanwhile, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who in March became the third-youngest driver to make his Formula 1 debut at 18 years 6 months 19 days old, comes in at No. 10 with an estimated $12.5 million from his promising rookie season.
Beyond the specific circumstances of any individual, drivers across F1 are reaping the rewards of two trends pushing up salaries. First, Formula 1’s turbocharged business, with both sponsorships and the prize money being offered by the series revving up, is giving teams more money to play with. Forbes estimates that the ten F1 teams averaged $430 million in revenue last season as the average team valuation soared to $3.6 billion this year, from $1.9 billion in 2023.
At the same time, the cost cap introduced in 2021 is restricting what teams can spend in many areas related to racecar design and construction, to roughly $170 million this season. But driver salaries are excluded from that budget calculation, giving teams desperate for any edge on the track one clear category where they can flex their financial muscle.
Outside of the occasional disclosure in a financial filing or lawsuit, as in the case of Stroll, Formula 1 driver compensation figures are rarely made publicly available. However, contracts are typically understood to link drivers’ pay directly to their performance on the track. A veteran driver for a prominent team will generally receive a large, guaranteed salary along with bonuses for race victories or a championship. Drivers who are less experienced or race for smaller teams tend to receive smaller salaries but can get significant bonuses for winning races or securing points in the standings.
Drivers can further pad their pay with endorsements, but unlike Forbes’ lists of the highest-paid players in, say, soccer or the NBA, the Formula 1 earnings ranking focuses solely on salaries and bonuses, excluding off-track income.
In practice, F1 drivers often have little room to seek out personal partnerships because of their obligations to their teams and their teams’ sponsors, which may require them to make appearances and may prohibit conflicting deals within that brand’s category. Hamilton is by far the most marketable driver currently on the grid, with an estimated $20 million in earnings off the track over the 12 months ending in May, helping him rank 22nd on Forbes’ 2025 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes. Verstappen, by contrast, collected an estimated $6 million in the same period.
Don’t feel too bad for him, however. Adding in his latest haul, Verstappen has made $323 million across the five years that Forbes has published the F1 earnings ranking—which should also soften the blow of his near miss with this season’s championship.
HIGHEST-PAID F1 DRIVERS 2025
#1. $76 million
Team: Red Bull Racing | Nationality: Netherlands | Age: 28 | Salary: $65 million | Bonuses: $11 million
Relative to his dominant 2023 and 2024, in which he won at least seven of each season’s first ten Grand Prix races, Verstappen got off to a slow start this year, with just two victories through 15 rounds. But the 28-year-old Dutch star made a furious charge down the stretch, winning six of the final nine Grand Prix races, and ended up with a series-best eight Grand Prix victories on the season, including Sunday’s finale in Abu Dhabi. He finished just 2 points behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, narrowly missing a fifth championship that would have moved him into a tie for third all-time among Formula 1 drivers alongside Juan Manuel Fangio. Still, in September, during a break between F1 races, Verstappen proved that he can win no matter what kind of car he’s driving. Behind the wheel of a Ferrari 296 sports car, he prevailed in his first race under the GT3 classification, triumphing alongside Chris Lulham in Germany on the Nürburgring Endurance Series.
#2. $70.5 million
Team: Ferrari | Nationality: United Kingdom | Age: 40 | Salary: $70 million | Bonuses: $0.5 million
Bryn Lennon/Formula-1/Getty Images
After Hamilton announced last year that he was leaving Mercedes following 12 seasons—and six drivers’ championships—he said it would fulfill a “childhood dream” to compete for Ferrari. By November, however, the 40-year-old Englishman was calling his first season in red a “nightmare.” While Hamilton finished a respectable sixth in the driver standings, he did not reach the podium at a single Grand Prix—his first season without a top-three finish in his illustrious 19-year Formula 1 career. “It’s been the worst season ever,” he told Sky Sports last month. “No matter how much I try, it keeps getting worse.” On the bright side, Hamilton did win the sprint race in China in March, and he can look forward to a full reset in 2026 with an entirely new car under Formula 1’s radically different technical specifications.
#3. $57.5 million
Team: McLaren | Nationality: United Kingdom | Age: 26 | Salary: $18 million | Bonuses: $39.5 million
Early last season, Norris moved into sole possession of a dubious distinction: the most podiums ever for a Formula 1 driver without a race win, recording his 15th top-three finish in China that April. Then came four breakthrough victories as Norris mounted a surprise challenge of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and the 26-year-old Englishman proved this year that it was no fluke, piling up seven Grand Prix wins and 18 podiums in 24 races to hold off Verstappen and his own teammate Oscar Piastri for the drivers’ championship. “I’ve not cried in a while, and I didn’t think I would cry, but I did,” Norris, the first McLaren driver to capture the title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, said after Sunday’s finale. “It has been a long year, but we did it, and I’m so proud of everyone.”
#4. $37.5 million
Team: McLaren | Nationality: Australia | Age: 24 | Salary: $10 million | Bonuses: $27.5 million
Piastri spent the season locked in a championship duel with Lando Norris, and although the 24-year-old Australian ultimately fell 13 points short of his McLaren teammate—and 11 behind a late-charging Max Verstappen—he racked up seven Grand Prix wins and 16 podium finishes and helped clinch the constructors’ race in October. He will get his chance to turn the tables next season after signing a multiyear contract extension with McLaren in March.
#5. $30 million
Team: Ferrari | Nationality: Monaco | Age: 28 | Salary: $30 million | Bonuses: $0
Bryn Lennon/Formula-1/Getty Images
This year has had its ups and downs for Leclerc. On the negative end of the spectrum, the 28-year-old Monegasque star slipped to fifth in the driver standings, from third in 2024, amid a frustrating season for Ferrari. On the bright side, Leclerc, whose contract reportedly runs through 2029, announced his engagement to model Alexandra Saint Mleux in November and has made a couple of other commitments, signing brand deals with Chivas Regal and Eight Sleep. He also launched an apparel line called CL16 and a creative studio, Sidequest, to produce content with brands.
#6. $26.5 million
Team: Aston Martin | Nationality: Spain | Age: 44 | Salary: $24 million | Bonuses: $2.5 million
Bryn Lennon/Formula-1/Getty Images
After a disappointing 2024, Alonso had an even worse 2025, sliding to tenth in the season-long standings with 56 points as Aston Martin sputtered to seventh as a team. The 44-year-old two-time champion has another year under contract, which will give him a chance to get back into contention under an overhaul of Formula 1’s technical specifications and with Aston Martin switching its engines from Mercedes to Honda. “If the car performs poorly, there’s a chance I’ll stay on for another year to finish on a high note,” Alonso told AS.com in September. “If the car performs well, 2026 will probably be my last year.”
#7. $26 million
Team: Mercedes | Nationality: United Kingdom | Age: 27 | Salary: $15 million | Bonuses: $11 million
With Lewis Hamilton departing for Ferrari, Russell was Mercedes’ clear No. 1 driver this year and delivered a fourth-place finish in the drivers’ standings, with two Grand Prix victories. In October, the 27-year-old Englishman signed a contract extension to remain with the Silver Arrows next season and later revealed that, if he reaches certain performance targets, the deal will be automatically renewed for 2027.
#8. $13.5 million
Team: Aston Martin | Nationality: Canada | Age: 27 | Salary: $12 million | Bonuses: $1.5 million
Jayce Illman/Getty Images
Like his Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso, Stroll struggled in 2025, falling to 16th in the standings with 33 points and posting top-ten finishes in just six Grand Prix races—never higher than sixth. However, the 27-year-old Canadian’s future appears secure at Aston Martin—owned by his father, billionaire Lawrence Stroll—after he signed a contract extension in June 2024.
#9. $13 million
Team: Williams | Nationality: Spain | Age: 31 | Salary: $10 million | Bonuses: $3 million
Forced out of his Ferrari seat after four seasons by Lewis Hamilton, Sainz signed a contract with Williams through 2026. In his first year with his new team, the 31-year-old Spaniard was ninth in the standings with two podium finishes. He clearly has the respect of his peers, however: This year, his fellow Formula 1 drivers voted to make him a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, their trade union.
#10. $12.5 million
Team: Mercedes | Nationality: Italy | Age: 19 | Salary: $5 million | Bonuses: $7.5 million
Bryn Lennon/Formula-1/Getty Images
Antonelli had impossibly big shoes to fill as a teenage rookie, sliding into the legendary Lewis Hamilton’s seat at Mercedes. Despite some bumps along the way—particularly during a midseason stretch in which he had to retire four times in six races—he showed his potential by reaching the podium at three Grand Prix races. He also came in seventh in the season-long driver standings, just six points behind his predecessor, Hamilton, thanks to a strong finish with points in eight of the final 11 Grand Prix races.
METHODOLOGY
With few Formula 1 driver salaries publicly available, Forbes generated its on-track compensation estimates in collaboration with Forbes.com contributor Caroline Reid of the data firm Formula Money. The estimates are based on financial documents, legal filings and press reports, as well as conversations with industry insiders. All pay figures are listed in U.S. dollars and are rounded to the nearest half-million.
Drivers typically receive a base salary plus bonuses for points scored or for race or championship wins, with the bonus amount depending on the size of the team and the experience of the driver. Off-track compensation, including endorsements, is not included in this ranking. Forbes does not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees.
