Formula 1 teams are always looking at ways to be better than their rivals, which is why they look at every aspect of the regulations to see where a competitive advantage can be gained.
When the cost cap was introduced in 2021 it limited teams to spending £115 million a year, with that reduced to £108 million for 2024 until at least 2025.
Teams are restricted on how much they can spend on the car performance, while salaries are also covered in that apart from the top three earners within a team and driver salaries.
Drivers already face mounting costs for their super licences year-on-year as it is based on the amount of points they score for which they must pay £1,820, plus they must pay the FIA a base fee of £9,017 each season.
McLaren team principal Zak Brown has outlined one area of the cost cap that teams like Mercedes and Red Bull fought for when they came up with the regulations, when speaking to the Business of Sport podcast.
Mercedes and Red Bull fought to have driver salaries not included in F1 cost cap
Both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are the two highest earning drivers on the F1 grid currently, given their championship successes in recent years.
Hamilton is set to inherit a salary that will reach $100m (£80m) a year by Ferrari next season, while Verstappen currently earns £842k-a-week at Red Bull according to Sportrac.
Brown says these types of salaries would be tough to pay out under the current budget cap, which is why top teams fought for them to ensure they could lure the talent.
“Those that have extreme wealth didn’t want parity in financial performance, so they wanted to have some areas in which they could still outspend the competiton,” said Brown.
“So if you look at what Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton is being paid, our two drivers are very well paid, but that was an area of fiscal difference because they didn’t want to have everything totally flat.”
The top 10 F1 driver salaries in 2024
Although Hamilton and Verstappen are the two top earners in F1 (based on figures from Sportrac), several drivers have also seen their salaries increase due to their success in recent years.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is third on the list despite having only finished fifth in the standings last season, with Valtteri Bottas making an apperence in the top 10.
| Rank | Top 10 Earning F1 Drivers 2024 | Team | Salary |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | £54.97 million |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | £35.46 million |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | £26.7 million |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | £20 million |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | £18 million |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | £18 million |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | £12 million |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | £11 million |
| 9 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | £10 million |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | £7 million |
The Sauber driver along with Zhou Guanyu has failed to score a single point this season, which could see the team endure its worst year since 2014.
Sergio Perez is also in the top 10 drivers, although that could change next season depending on whether Red Bull decides to replace him after a dissapointing year for the Mexican.
