F1 Driver Salaries for Hamilton and Verstappen in 2025 plus Lance Stroll pay revealed

lewis hamilton, max verstappen, money, canva — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Driver Salaries

F1 Driver Salaries for Hamilton and Verstappen plus Lance Stroll pay revealed

Details of the current deals for every driver on the 2025 grid.

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Friday 31 October 2025 20:00 Updated: 16:26

Being an F1 driver is one of the most glamorous jobs around in 2025 - but just how much money do Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and co take home?

The contracts and salaries that teams offer their drivers are exempt from the budget cap, meaning those at the front of the grid remain some of the highest-paid sports stars around.

Hamilton made a stunning move to Ferrari for 2025, providing another massive deal to shake up the list of current driver salaries.

How much do F1 drivers earn in 2025?

Salaries for F1 drivers are notoriously difficult to pin down; there can be a range of external elements such as contract upgrades, bonuses, and sponsorships, which makes it hard to identify just how much each driver earns.

In 2022, Max Verstappen penned one of the most lucrative deals for a driver in F1 history and was financially rubbing shoulders with great rival Lewis Hamilton. In 2023 and 2024, Verstappen earned even more than Hamilton due to performance-based bonuses, but the two biggest stars still remained the sport's highest earners.

Hamilton's latest Ferrari contract will bring him closer to his arch rival, and you'd imagine that if he manages to claim an unprecedented eighth world title with the team (it won't be in 2025 obviously...), then his bonuses will be through the roof.

2025 title challenger Lando Norris is on a lucrative deal with McLaren, although his age and lack of proven world title pedigree means he is a way behind Verstappen and Hamilton.

Norris' team-mate and current championship leader Oscar Piastri signed a new contract with McLaren ahead of the 2025 season, and reportedly got a mammoth pay rise. Money well spent it appears by the team in papaya.

We did just get one new nugget confirmed with the apparent pay for Aston Martin star Lance Stroll. Latest reports from the UK's Companies House show Stroll's Golden Eagle Racing Ltd was paid $12.3m for the 2024 F1 season. It's worth noting there is a caveat here - that figure also appears to include nutritionists, physiotherapists and management.

Here are the base salaries of F1 drivers, as reported by multiple credible sources, excluding any performance-based bonuses.

Driver	Team	Base salary
Max Verstappen	Red Bull	$65m
Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	$60m
Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	$34m
Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	$20m
Lando Norris	McLaren	$20m
Oscar Piastri	McLaren	$20m
George Russell	Mercedes	$15m
Carlos Sainz	Williams	$10m
Pierre Gasly	Alpine	$10m
Alex Albon	Williams	$8m
Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	$7m
Esteban Ocon	Haas	$7m
Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	$12.3m
Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	$2m
Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	$2m
Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	$2m
Ollie Bearman	Haas	$1m
Liam Lawson	Red Bull	$1m
Jack Doohan	Alpine	<$1m
Franco Colapinto	Alpine	<$1.5m
Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	<$1m

Does the F1 budget cap affect driver salaries?

Quite simply, it doesn't.

As mentioned, driver salaries are kept separate from the budget cap. Indeed the salaries of the three highest-paid employees are exempt, which in virtually all cases will include the team principals as well.

Other items which are kept exempt include marketing costs and utility bills incurred by the teams.

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

View full biography

F1 Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes