Forbes Highest-Paid Formula 1 Drivers 2025 List

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 battle for the Formula 1 drivers’ championship went down to the season’s final day, but with a third-place finish in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, Lando Norris edged his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and the reigning four-time champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, to claim the 2025 title—and an estimated $10 million bonus.

But even adding in an estimated $18 million in salary and another $29.5 million tied to the 26-year-old Englishman’s performance on the track, for a total of $57.5 million this season, Norris crosses 2025’s finish line in third place in F1’s financial race.

Ahead of Norris is seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who set a series record with a salary that Forbes estimates at $70 million and tacked on an estimated $500,000 in bonuses in his first season with Ferrari after 12 hugely successful years with Mercedes. But it is Verstappen who ultimately led the F1 pack again with estimated total compensation of $76 million, counting $65 million in salary and $11 million in bonuses. The 28-year-old Dutch superstar has now held the on-track earnings crown for four straight seasons.

Across the grid, Formula 1’s ten highest-paid drivers raked in an estimated $363 million on the track this season—a 15% increase from 2024’s $317 million and a remarkable 72% jump since Forbes first began publishing the ranking in 2021.

Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, fifth with an estimated $30 million, up from $27 million, is among the drivers whose paychecks picked up the pace after he got a substantial salary boost under a new contract signed last year.

With Sergio Pérez dropping off the list after he lost his seat at Red Bull and Pierre Gasly falling off as well amid a disastrous season at Alpine that effectively robbed him of opportunities to score performance bonuses, the ranking also features two newcomers.

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