Formula 1 hit the news heavy, when the amount of money involved in Lewis Hamilton’s contract was seemingly revealed. 40 million pounds per year. For only a two-year contract. Hamilton became one of the highest paid drivers on the grid. Outside F1, it became a complaint that 40 million was way too much and stupid. But why do they get paid so much?
Historically formula 1 is a dangerous sport. Certainly more dangerous than football.
The world of football takes blow after blow, with the cost of one player, then their wages. But F1, it is probably one of the richest sports in the world, the amount of money pumped into it each years is ridiculous. The car itself, which there is two of per team, cost around £6,000,000 to build from the start of the season. That’s just for one car, and that’s the start of the season, not even taking into account, crashes, upgrades etc.
Outside formula 1, the World Champions wage is stupid, like he gets paid way too much in a lot of people’s eyes. But also it’s not just him that has a large pay cheque going through his multi-million-pound home, in which ever country. Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel are both on a similar amount of money. But they don’t get as much attention as Hamilton because he’s Lewis Hamilton and anything and everything he does gets blown up, due to the way he lives his life outside formula 1.
But why do these elite twenty drivers deserve so much money for “driving cars in a circle” To start off with, not all the drivers on the grid are on anywhere near as much money as Hamilton. But let’s start with the history of formula 1. Historically formula 1 is a dangerous sport. Certainly more dangerous than football. Even though, formula one is in the safest period it has ever been in, there are still a lot of risks involved in the sport. Luckily, we have the halo, and look at what happened with Charles Leclerc – you can read about it here. But it shows just how scary F1 can be because even though everyone came out fine, it could have been a lot worse. So, F1 drivers are technically risking their lives every time they get in the car.
Also, it’s not like formula 1 is easy to get to. Honestly you have more chance at being a professional footballer, not to discourage but talent won’t just get you there. In the junior formula, you need money, and lots of it. Luckily, there are some programmes from the top teams which allow drivers with less money or whom have lots of talent to be funded by a team. Of course two of the biggest examples are the two fighting it out for the world championship. Hamilton and Vettel, both coming from junior teams, McLaren and Red Bull. The cost of driving in series such as formula 2, are sky high., some drivers cannot even afford to drive in them, if you watch AlexZAfRo’s interview with Werhlein, he explains he didn’t have the funds to be able to go to GP2 (as it was known at the time).
Formula 1 is a rich sport. That is a fact. Mentioning prior how much it cost for one car, at basics. You cannot be a team with hardly any money in this sport. Look at Force India… sorry. Racing Point Force India, look at them they are now owned by several billionaires which works out great for the, it really does. But anyway, the money these teams have is stupidly great. Mercedes, they have money to burn. Red Bull, they sponsor anyone and anything so they have money left right and centre. Ferrari, are Ferrari, do I say anything more. The top 3 have money they can do anything with. But the other teams not so, oh McLaren, they have quite a large sum of money to hand. Anyway, the money they have allows them to be able to pay their drivers that amount of money. So, if one of the top three thinks they have the best driver, and that driver could get a seat so fast. They are going to deliver the amount of money that Driver wants. Unless you’re Daniel Riccardo, and you get offered everything but decide to move to a midfield team anyway!
Compared to formula one’s counterparts in motorsport, the formula one drivers are the richest by far, purchasing their home in Monaco like no tomorrow. But compared to the rest of motorsport, F1 is in another realm for pay cheques. It is probably because formula 1 is the most well-known, it doesn’t necessarily have the best manufactures. However, it has significant ones. But Indy Car, NASCAR, WEC and Formula E have drivers whom are paid nowhere near as much as formula one drivers. Especially with, what you can say Indy Car and NASCAR having a potentially higher risk. It’s crazy really.
But formula one, it’s formula one. That is not the real reason the price of a driver is so high. But formula one is known for going side by side with money. Yet, these drivers do somewhat risk their lives every week or two weeks. That’s why they are paid so much.
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