Who Was Formula 1’s Highest Paid Driver In 2024?

2024, it could be argued, eventually became a season that one may note was not only hard to forget but even harder to point much flaws at. Not only was the recently-concluded F1 world Championship of 2024 a year where there was a closely contested fight in the Driver’s standings at one point, but the Constructors’ standings produced a fight for the ages. One in which Ferrari were closely involved for top reckoning.

Not all that regularly have we seen an FIA F1 world championship round in which the Constructors’ battle hung onto the knife’s edge and went as far as the final round of the year as was the case this time around with both McLaren and Ferrari entering race#24, i.e., the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with both teams having a shot at winning the Constructors’ crown. But where the drivers’ standings were concerned, then the battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris reached the Las Vegas Grand Prix with the contest still giving the young Briton a chance to outfox his closest title rival, which ultimately wasn’t to be as the Flying Dutchman went on to claim a fourth world title.

There was so much to savour and several aspects to enjoy over the course of a particularly action-packed and deeply enjoyable season. But in the end, the top honours belonged to one deserving driver of the 20 on track and that was Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who also became, lest it is forgotten, the highest paid driver of the F1 grid in 2024.

So that leaves us with the big question of just what did the F1 grid’s highest paid driver earn at the end of the day?

Reportedly, in becoming the highest-paid driver on the F1 grid, Max Verstappen earned a whopping salary of 60 million dollars. But that is not all; on top of his salary, he was also the beneficiary of some bonuses, 15 million USD of them. This, therefore, takes his overall earnings from driving in F1 in 2024 to an insane 75 million dollar figure.

Anyone who debated as to why it pays to be an F1 driver, should therefore, resort to the aforementioned statistic, and what a mighty piece of stat it is, isn’t it?

But it wasn’t just the huge swathes of money involved in 2024 that made it yet another year for Max Verstappen to cherish; the Hasselt-born Dutch driver also scored the record of becoming the youngest ever F1 driver to compete in 200 Grands Prix this year. More interestingly, even if Max has by self-admission, pointed to the prospective of retiring from the sport, he still has a contract with Red Bull that sees him with the Milton Keynes-based outfit until the end of the 2028 FIA F1 season.

But the key question is, until how long can Max Verstappen remain with the team that has given him his world champion identity and will the forthcoming years see him dominant in the same fashion with which he rose to the very top of the highest annals of Grand Prix racing?