F1 Driver Salaries: Updated 2026 list including Hamilton and Verstappen as Carlos Sainz GETS PAID

Carlos Sainz and Rebecca Donaldson look at the camera in black tie at the Cannes film festival — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Driver Salaries

F1 Driver Salaries: Updated list including Hamilton and Verstappen as Carlos Sainz GETS PAID

What a deal for the Spaniard

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Thursday 20 August 2026 09:00 Updated: 13:06

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It's official, Carlos Sainz now earns 'a champion's salary' after signing that massive Williams contract extension.

The 31-year-old Spaniard has reportedly moved onto a par with reigning F1 world champion after putting to paper on a multi-year deal, announced by his team on Wednesday.

It was a massive statement of intent from Williams, who had been struggling to hold onto Sainz after a disastrous start to 2026.

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The team, currently languishing in ninth position in the Constructors' standings, went into silly season 2026 with speculation linking Sainz with both Audi and Red Bull.

But the offer of a $30million annual salary, and exit clauses based on the team's future performance, have persuaded Sainz to stay put for years to come.

The deal came just 24 hours after Sainz's team-mate Alex Albon had confirmed he will be remaining with Williams for 2027, on a reported salary of $15million.

Despite his new-found riches, Sainz still has some way to go before he starts to trouble the men at the very front of the financial grid.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen - currently being linked with a massive transfer - is the highest paid driver in the sport on a $70million annual salary with Red Bull. There is now a chance that figure could be significantly higher as we await the finer details from the Dutchman extending his deal through 2030.

Verstappen has signed a Red Bull extension to 2030.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton meanwhile is next on the list as he rakes in around $60million per year from his seat at Ferrari.

F1 driver salaries in 2026

After that massive Sainz contract was confirmed, the salary table for F1 drivers in 2026 looks like this:

Driver	Team	Base salary
*Max Verstappen	Red Bull	$70m
Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	$60m
Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	$34m
George Russell	Mercedes	$34m
Lando Norris	McLaren	$30m
Carlos Sainz	Williams	$30m
Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	$20m
Alex Albon	Williams	$15m
Oscar Piastri	McLaren	$13m
Pierre Gasly	Alpine	$12m
Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	$12m
Sergio Perez	Cadillac	$8m
Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	$7m
Esteban Ocon	Haas	$7m
Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	$5m
Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	$5m
Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	$2m
Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	$2m
Ollie Bearman	Haas	$1m
Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	$1m
Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	<$1m
Franco Colapinto	Alpine	<$1m

* denotes new figure yet to be confirmed.

Verstappen and Hamilton top the F1 driver salaries.

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.

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F1 Carlos Sainz