Nobody really knows the 2025 F1 drivers’ salaries but we can have a good guess

F1's season opener a few days ago reminded me of my own brief if unremarkable ‘career’ as a Formula One test driver.  

I completed six laps of the Mallory Park circuit which, a bit like me, has seen better days. Miraculously, I managed to keep the temperamental Tyrrell F1 car beneath me on the damp black stuff and away from the even damper green grass that I came perilously close to putting a wheel on as my confidence grew, but my talent started to run out.

At the opposite end of the success scale are the 20 blokes - from teenagers to 40-somethings old enough to be their fathers - who have secured proper jobs as Formula One pilots in 2025. All are formally signed up and confirmed as full-timers, for a minimum of one season at least. But what they'll be earning this year is far less clear as their actual per annum wages are (always have been and always will be) closely guarded secrets. 

Not that this deters established business, consumer and sports magazines, national newspapers, specialist websites and other interested parties scattered across the globe from revealing what they believe are the current annual pay rates for such drivers. That said, these estimated figures widely differ as, for example, some include likely bonus and other payments to employed drivers while others focus on mere basic salaries, before performance-related and other extras are applied.   

Most professional observers, insiders and commentators (me included) agree that in 2025, raw rookies Jack Doohan of Alpine and Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) are each on a starter/probationer annual wage of around $500,000-$1million, Haas newcomer Oliver Bearman is a $1m man, while Red Bull's Liam Lawson could be making as little as $800,000 or as much as $3m.

Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto is reportedly on $1.5m to $2m whereas Mercedes new boy, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and Racing Bull's massively more experienced Yuki Tsunoda are both thought to be earning somewhere between $1.5m and $3m apiece. The annual earnings window for Aston Martin's Lance Stroll is $2.3m-$3m, while Alex Albon of Williams is understood to be sitting in $3m to $8m territory.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg will likely cop $5m-$7m. 'The Hulk' (as he allowed me to call him when we had a quiet one-to-one drink together a while ago) currently holds the all-time record for having the most F1 starts - 228 - without securing a single podium finish or race win. Not a lot of people know that. Now you do. 

Of the big boys - drivers who’ve actually stood on podiums and won F1 races in the recent past - Esteban Ocon is expected to make $5.5-$7million from the Haas team he’s joined in 2025. Then comes Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (approximately $8-$12m), and the new arrival at Williams, Carlos Sainz ($8-$19m). 

Merc’s George Russell ($12-$23m), Aston's Fernando Alonso ($16m-$28m), Oscar Piastri of McLaren ($18m-$26m), Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ($27m-£34m) and McLaren’s Lando Norris ($18m-$35m) are close to the top of the earnings tree.

But Lewis Hamilton is even closer with a salary at Ferrari understood to be around the $48m-$60m mark. No prizes for guessing that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is being paid more than any other driver this year. Think in the region of around $52-$75m. Nice work if you can get it, lad.

Because F1 is a US dollar rather than a pound sterling industry, all the above approximate figures are quoted in dollars. And like I said at the start, as these salaries aren't intended to be in the public domain, an individual driver (plus his manager/agent) and the F1 team employing him for his driving talents are the only parties who know precisely how small or large the annual salary is and what the arrangements are for additional payments if, for example, fastest laps are achieved, points are scored, races are won and world champion status is achieved. 

With all this in mind and a total of 24 Grand Prix between March and December 2025, some rookies might be on a basic of around $21,000 per race, while current or past world champs could be earning nearer $2m-$3m every time they go out for their not-so-leisurely Sunday afternoon drives. 

Regardless of whether you reckon they're underpaid or overpaid, free-to-air telly (Channel 4) will show you them in action - qualifying, battling it out in a sprint race and indulging in proper, brutal Grand Prix racing - at the Chinese GP this coming Friday (from 11.35am), Saturday (2pm) and Sunday (1pm). 

Do F1 drivers get paid too much? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section...