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[Stealthgate007]

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 4037.shtml

A survey, completed by Arabian Business.com has revealed that drivers this year earned in the region of US $130m between them. While some of the figures are generally well documented, the report claims that 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen pulled in an astonishing $45m, or 35% of the total for the whole field.

Raikkonen of course is not racing with Ferrari in 2010, his contract ending a year earlier than scheduled. While the precise figures are not known, it is almost certain that the Italian team are paying the Finn handsomely not to race for the team next season. This could help explain why Toyota, who has publically admitted that they have made Raikkonen an offer for next season, has now backed off at the pay demands required to secure his services.

Lewis Hamilton is about to complete the second season of his five-year McLaren Mercedes contract and earns a reported $18m with Fernando Alonso next up on $15m this year with Renault. The 2005/6 champion is off to Ferrari next season, despite agreeing a two-year deal to remain with the Anglo-French team in December 2008.

Jenson Button we know took a pay cut from a rumoured $12m in 2008 and is listed this year at $5m with the championship winning Brawn Mercedes team. Other notables include Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello on $1m, while team-backed drivers such as Romain Grosjean and Kazuki Nakajima are not actually paid to race – although one assumes they get something in kind for their efforts.



As ever, the figures are all but impossible to verify, but it still makes interesting reading...

2009 driver salaries – US $ (m)
1 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F60 - 45
2 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 18
3 . F. Alonso - Renault R29 - 15
4 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 8.5
5 . F. Massa - Ferrari F60 - 8
6 . J. Trulli - Toyota TF109 - 6.5
7 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 6
8 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 5.5
9 . J. Button - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 5
10 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 4.5
11 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 3.5
12 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.09 - 2.8
13 . G. Fisichella - Ferrari F60 - 1.5
14 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 1.5
15 . R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes BGP 001 - 1
16 . J. Alguersuari - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR4 - 0.5
17 . A. Sutil - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 0
18 . K. Nakajima - Williams Toyota FW31 - 0
19 . V. Liuzzi - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 0
20 . R. Grosjean - Renault R29 - 0

They did not mention Timo Glock

[scotty]

Massa gets $8m a year? Not sure about that, i would have thought it was more, and i've heard several times in the past that it was similar to Button's old contract, ie more in the region of £12-15m...

[Juliet P]

Rubinho only gets $1M?!?

[Stealthgate007]

Since Vettel is his own manager he is only getting 6 mill...I bet that is not the case next year...

[Hexagram]

I don't believe some of those figures.

[f1usa]

Rubinho only gets $1M?!?

Nico makes 8 times the money, and scored half the points of Rubens in 09.

[Big Azza]

Interesting - the Williams team:

Rosberg: 8.5 Million
Nakajima: $0.00

And good point about Timo Glock. Instead they show three Ferrari Drivers.

So, if Kimmi were to remain in F1, he'd need to take a serious pay cut. I think Abu Dhabi is his last race...

[Gaz]

i don't blame kimi wouldn't get out of bed for less than 40mil

[darwin dali]

Since Vettel is his own manager he is only getting 6 mill...I bet that is not the case next year...

On the other hand, he doesn't have to share it with some Mr. (or Ms.) 20%

[Stealthgate007]

Since Vettel is his own manager he is only getting 6 mill...I bet that is not the chase next year...

On the other hand, he doesn't have to share it with some Mr. (or Ms.) 20%

I thought the same thing, no pesky management commission to get in the way.

I think Raikkonen and Hamilton where the last of the "high paid hired hands" before the economy tanked. That seems real obvious. If you are locked in, you are golden. If you are up for renewal then its gonna be hard to get that type of money for the foreseeable future. I'd be interested to see what Alonso is getting for 2010.. If I where him I would have a clause for ubber millions if I brought home the WDC and WCC. But since he was addement to go to Ferrari, I wonder if he will even make his Renault salary..

Jens won the WDC and he is haggling with Brawn to get a fraction of what Kimi had.. granted Jens is not Kimi..

Tough times indeed for a F1 driver..

[darwin dali]

I think there should be a salary cap per team maybe based on their WCC ranking. That cap would apply to the salary sum of both drivers combined, so the teams would be free to allocate the money between the two drivers. The relationship to the team ranking would be an incentive for everybody to really go for every single point since a drop in the standings would inevitably bring about a drop in the drivers' salary.
Maybe add to all driver's contracts a clearly defined and uniform for all teams/drivers bonus per point which could be exempted from the salary cap.
That'll get them boys fighting for every position

[Stealthgate007]

I think there should be a salary cap per team maybe based on their WCC ranking. That cap would apply to the salary sum of both drivers combined, so the teams would be free to allocate the money between the two drivers. The relationship to the team ranking would be an incentive for everybody to really go for every single point since a drop in the standings would inevitably bring about a drop in the drivers' salary.
Maybe add to all driver's contracts a clearly defined and uniform for all teams/drivers bonus per point which could be exempted from the salary cap.
That'll get them boys fighting for every position

Hmm. I see your point, because, forgive me, Kimi did not drive every race balls out for his 50m this year. Although his car was not competitive, it seemed he gave up.

Would a purse at the end of the season make drivers who have low salaries buck up and race harder? Say 5m for 1st, 2m for 2nd and 1m for 3rd in the WDC. basically 8m in prize money at the end of the season. Seb would have had 30% increase, while jens would have more than doubled his salary.

[Juliet P]

You're assuming that drivers are motivated more by money that by achievement...

[f1usa]

I think there should be a salary cap per team maybe based on their WCC ranking. That cap would apply to the salary sum of both drivers combined, so the teams would be free to allocate the money between the two drivers. The relationship to the team ranking would be an incentive for everybody to really go for every single point since a drop in the standings would inevitably bring about a drop in the drivers' salary.
Maybe add to all driver's contracts a clearly defined and uniform for all teams/drivers bonus per point which could be exempted from the salary cap.
That'll get them boys fighting for every position

Hmm. I see your point, because, forgive me, Kimi did not drive every race balls out for his 50m this year. Although his car was not competitive, it seemed he gave up.

Would a purse at the end of the season make drivers who have low salaries buck up and race harder? Say 5m for 1st, 2m for 2nd and 1m for 3rd in the WDC. basically 8m in prize money at the end of the season. Seb would have had 30% increase, while jens would have more than doubled his salary.

You both make good points but in order for this to work you would have to ban sponsor paid drives, with the money paid to their team instead. There is four or five drivers on list showing zero salary, we know this isn't true because unlike Jenson they wouldn't even have air-fare.

[Jabberwocky]

I would imagine that Toyota are giving crashajima some money