I think I'd live in Switzerland or Monaco too.... I think Rubens is getting the short end of the stick Carol * * * * f1 live 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 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. Kobayashi - Toyota TF109 - 0 19 . V. Liuzzi - Force India Mercedes VJM02 - 0 20 . R. Grosjean - Renault R29 - 0
Very interesting to see Rosberg that high up on the list... Usually sponsors are paying them (and the team). In case of Koba and Grosjean, I think they're happy enough to get a chance at driving in F1 at all.
I too was surprised at Nico's number. Particularly if Sir Frank signed the check. As far as the unpaid drivers go it has not been unknown for drivers to pay for their rides either with dedicated sponsors or personal funds. Does anyone know if some driver salaries are still paid directly by sponsors as Marlboro has in the past?
Wot no theme park? I saw that today too. Frank hasn't lasted as long as he has without being savvy which is why Nico's number surprised me.
sounds like a good deal there - also I read this am where Brawn is running sponsorship for this race only from some UAE communications group (at least I think that was it) Carol
Not for money though... He said he wanted to keep that job so he can 'lead a normal life'. In my opinion, purely for that reason you shouldn't be in F1. If you want to be quite succesful you have to spend a lot of your free time in the gym working mostly your neck and do endurance. He had a good running in GP2 so with some off season testing done and not wasting time pushing paper at the bank I recon he can improve a lot. As for the rest who earn no money, this is partly true...They do get some compensation, ie flights are being paid (normally for the driver only), hotels and normally they can use an apartment. Eddie Jordan actually kept Jarno Trulli in his house so that he could improve on his english. I don't like EJ much but I thought this was a nice thing of him to do. Flavio has plenty of property and piquet was in one of his...until he apparently got to close with his 50 odd year old neighbour and daddy asked him to move to oxford, rofl. VJ Mallya has a lot of property as well and it won't surprise me if his drivers get an appartment too.
Either that, or he's preparing back for normal life when Heidi or someone else replaces him next season.
WOW......... I'm supprised that Ferrari did cut Kimi's pay when he signed is extended contract until 2010. Kimi must be laughing his head off at Ferrari.
Nico looks like a fashionable racing driver and his name sounds familiar. And he's media savvy (always on Inside F1 for example). I'm sure this helps.
I don't think anyone would argue that Kimi is worth $45 mil to Massa's $8 mil. Will be very interesting to see his new, much lower salary.
Is the Sutil figure accurate? I can't fathom how he wouldn't be salaried after being with the team a few years already.
