How Much Does The Winner Of F1 Get Paid?

Article reviewed and updated by Jack Renn, July 2026.

• Formula 1 does not pay per-race prize money to winners, so drivers earn entirely through team salaries and performance bonuses negotiated in their contracts.
• Max Verstappen is the highest-paid driver on the 2026 grid at an estimated $70 million base salary, followed by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari on $50 million and Lando Norris at McLaren on $30 million.
• Norris’s 2025 title win drove his McLaren base salary from $18 million to $30 million, and Forbes estimated he received a $10 million championship bonus on top of $29.5 million in race-related performance bonuses.

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How Much Does The Winner Of Formula 1 Get Paid?

How much the winner of F1 gets paid depends entirely on their contract. Formula 1 has no per-race prize money. The sport’s total revenue reached $3.87 billion in 2025 according to Liberty Media’s annual results. Approximately 45% of that figure is distributed to the 11 teams at the end of each season based on where they finish in the Constructors’ Championship. Drivers earn from their teams through contracts that typically include a base salary plus bonuses tied to race wins, podium finishes, and championship points.

The race winner’s payout is also separate from what F1 drivers earn in salary, where the top of the market clears $75 million a season in estimated pay.

A driver who wins a Grand Prix does not receive a payout from F1 itself. The financial reward for winning comes through the driver’s contract with their team, where race-win bonuses typically range from $100,000 to over $1 million, depending on the individual agreement.

How F1 Distributes Its Revenue

F1’s prize pool is split into three categories. Around 75% goes to teams based on where they finished in the Constructors’ Championship, with the champion receiving roughly 14% of the pool and tenth place receiving around 6%. Another 20% is allocated as historical performance bonuses, rewarding sustained success over the previous decade. The remaining 5% goes to Ferrari as a guaranteed heritage payment, recognising Ferrari as the only constructor to have competed in every season since the World Championship began in 1950. Under the new Concorde Agreement covering 2026 to 2030, that Ferrari payment is now capped at 5% of the total pool.

This structure creates some counterintuitive outcomes. McLaren won back-to-back Constructors’ Championships in 2024 and 2025 but received only the fourth-largest payout from the 2025 season at an estimated $165.8 million. Ferrari collected $277.7 million, Mercedes $230.8 million, and Red Bull $202.9 million, all boosted by legacy bonuses accumulated during their years of sustained dominance. Cadillac joined the grid in 2026 as the 11th team after paying a $450 million anti-dilution fee split equally among the existing teams at $45 million each.

What F1 Drivers Earn in 2026

Driver salaries sit entirely outside the budget cap, which rose to $215 million for 2026. Teams can pay their drivers whatever they negotiate without it counting against their spending limit, and the range across the grid is enormous.

Max Verstappen remains the highest-paid driver in Formula 1. His Red Bull contract runs through the end of 2028 and pays an estimated $70 million base salary in 2026 according to Spotrac and Forbes. With performance bonuses, his total on-track earnings reached $76 million in 2025. His deal includes an exit clause linked to Red Bull’s championship performance, and his management has reportedly indicated a price of $100 million per year for any future extension.

Lewis Hamilton moved to Ferrari for 2025 after over a decade at Mercedes. His base salary at Maranello is reported at approximately $50 million, with total annual compensation estimated at up to $100 million when performance bonuses and endorsements are included.

Lando Norris saw the biggest pay jump on the 2026 grid after winning the World Drivers’ Championship in 2025. His McLaren base salary rose from $18 million to $30 million, making him the third-highest-paid driver behind Verstappen and Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc earns an estimated $34 million base at Ferrari, and George Russell receives approximately the same at Mercedes. Oscar Piastri, who finished third in the 2025 championship, signed an extension with McLaren worth a reported $20 million base. At the other end of the scale, Valtteri Bottas returned to the grid in 2026 with the new Cadillac team on a reported $5 million base, while Fernando Alonso earns an estimated $24 million at Aston Martin and Carlos Sainz receives approximately $13 million at Williams.

All salary figures are estimates compiled by Forbes, Spotrac, and specialist tracking outlets. F1 teams and drivers do not publicly disclose contract terms.

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Sources

• Formula 1’s Highest-Paid Drivers 2025 – Forbes
• Liberty Media Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Year End 2025 Results – Liberty Media
• Max Verstappen signs new contract to stay at Red Bull through 2028 – ESPN
• Lewis Hamilton F1 salary, sponsors: Nearly $100 million – Sportico

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