03/04/2019
NEWS STORY
Five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has become the highest-paid driver in the history of F1.
In a report by Formula Money for Forbes, it is revealed that Lewis Hamilton's career earnings from F1 since entering the sport total £370.8m ($489m).
This puts him ahead of Michael Schumacher, who is estimated to have earned £351.9m ($464m) over the course of his F1 career - like Hamilton this is an estimate based on salaries and bonuses only - Fernando Alonso £347.3m ($458m), Sebastian Vettel £271.5m ($358m) and Kimi Raikkonen £251m ($331m).
Surprisingly, while 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg doesn't make the 'top ten', Ralf Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello, none of whom won the title, do.
Ralf Schumacher quit the sport in 2007, having started out with Jordan. Though he drove for Williams, financially the best move of his career was to Toyota where he was paid an estimated £15.1m ($20m) annually yet never won a race and left after two seasons.
Similarly, Jacques Villeneuve's biggest pay day was when the 1997 world champion quit Williams for British American Racing, which was run by his friend and manager Craig Pollock.
The Canadian is understood to have been paid an estimated £12.1m ($16m) by the Brackley-based outfit that was to subsequently morph into Honda, Brawn and Mercedes.
Villeneuves' career earnings of £87.2m ($115m) put him 8th on Formula Money's 'top ten', with former teammate and 2009 world champion, Jenson Button, sixth on £111.5m ($147m).
Michael Schumacher's annual salary peaked at around £28.8m ($38m), and in 1999, the year before he won the first of his five titles with Ferrari, he took top spot in terms of career earnings, a position he held until Hamilton signed his latest contract with Mercedes which is worth £37.9m ($50m) a year.
With his finger in a number of pies, Hamilton is a big earner away from the track, the face of numerous advertising campaigns from brands that include Tommy Hilfiger and audio equipment maker Bose, dabbling in music and movies also, no wonder Toto Wolff describes the Briton as "the only superstar in Formula One".
Hamilton's contract ends at the end of 2020 - in what is shaping up to be a watershed year for the sport - and with Mercedes already warning that it could leave the sport if it goes ahead with plans to reduce its prize money and introduce a budget cap, Hamilton has also warned that if the calendar is expanded - which is clearly the intention - he too would quit.
"It's most likely I'm not going to be here when it gets to 25 that's for sure," he warned last year.
Check out our Wednesday gallery from Bahrain, here.