Mark Webber has been overtaken as Australia’s highest-earning sportsman.
Business Review Weekly’s annual analysis of the country’s rich and powerful found that the Red Bull driver made $9 million this year. But that was reportedly half a million short of Honda’s 2011 MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, the 26-year-old who – like 35-year-old Webber – is from New South Wales.
However, both Webber and Stoner have been left in the wheel tracks of Andrew Bogut, whose new Milwaukee Bucks contract saw him collect a cool $13.5 million by playing NBA basketball. Motocross rider Chad Reed, meanwhile, reportedly made $8.5m, followed by Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, with $5m in 2011.
But for the country’s new F1 star Daniel Ricciardo, the road ahead to high earnings is long, as the online WA Today newspaper expects the 22-year-old to make less than $200,000 racing with Toro Rosso next season.
And until this week, he wasn’t sure he would even have that job.
“I can honestly say that I didn’t know it (the announcement) was coming and it had been playing on my mind a fair bit,” said Ricciardo. “It was a fair bit of a relief actually.”
Source:GMM
