Daniel Ricciardo may have surprised everyone last year with his move to the “best of the rest”, swapping the familiarity of Red Bull Racing out for Renault Sport in 2019, but a reveal of this year’s driver’s salaries confirms it was at least financially strategic, if nothing else.
British publication The Mirror has disclosed the pay packets of each of the sport’s 20 drivers, including our boy Ricciardo who will enjoy a mouth-watering $49m per season.
Regardless of the teams or cars they’re racing with, it’s easy to see from the list below that those drivers showing the most talent are clearly being awarded for it.
RELATED: Why exactly did Ricciardo leave Red Bull Racing?
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) $73,900,000
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) $56,300,000
Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) $49,000,000
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) $18,500,000
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) $12,000,000
Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) $6,500,000
Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) $6,500,000
Carlos Sainz (McLaren) $5,500,000
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) $4,600,000
Sergio Perez (Racing Point) $4,600,000
Romain Grosjean (Haas) $2,600,000
Pierre Gasly (Red Bull) $1,845,000
Lance Stroll (Racing Point) $1,660,000
Kevin Magnussen (Haas) $1,660,000
Robert Kubica (Williams) $800,000
Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) $425,000
Lando Norris (McLaren) $370,000
Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) $323,000
George Russell (Williams) $258,000
Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso) $240,000
(All salaries are in AUD, converted from GBP and rounded, see the original list here)