The wait is over and Lewis Hamilton signed with Mercedes. His renewal is for one year, but the Englishman will charge more than double the second-best pay in Formula 1 in 2021, according to The Sun. Not only that, the seven-time world champion will have an annual salary of 54.8 million dollars (40 million pounds sterling), more than a third of the minimum budget of a team. That amount would include the bonuses for advertising and television revenue that the British demanded from the German team.
Hamilton’s annual floor is one hundred percent higher than Red Bull’s benchmark Max Verstappen; about $ 25 million (£ 18.2 million). At the same time, it is more than triple what Charles Leclerc will receive, who with the departure of Sebastian Vettel was number one of Ferrari, and Daniel Ricciardo, who went to McLaren. The Monegasque and the Australian will earn this year, about 14 million dollars (10.19 million pounds sterling).
More telling is Lewis’s salary when compared to the rest of the top ten payouts in the Maxim. The sum of all their annual salaries does not reach the global of what Hamilton will earn and that list includes top and renowned riders such as world champions, Vettel himself and Fernando Alonso, who returns this season.
Carlos Sainz, Vettel’s replacement at Ferrari and the German himself, will collect $ 10 million (£ 7.28 million). Those amounts are one million more of the US currency than what Alonso himself will receive (6.55 million pounds sterling), which returns from the hand of the Alpine F1 Team, the former Renault, where he won his titles in 2005 and 2006 .
Another fact is that Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes, will have an income of almost 8 million dollars (5.82 million pounds sterling). It’s seven times less than what Hamilton will pocket.
A listed Lewis Hamilton will earn in 2021, about 54.8 million dollars (40 million pounds sterling).
Finally, the top ten of the ten highest salaries are completed by Sergio Pérez and Kimi Raikkonen. Checo, who will debut at Red Bull, will cherish the $ 6 million (£ 4.37 million), four times less than Verstappen. While Iceman, who at 41 years will continue to accelerate in Alfa Romeo, will close to 5 million dollars (3.64 million pounds sterling).
According to Business Book GP, Hamilton in 2020 collected a total of $ 55.7 million. This figure only corresponded to salary and did not include bonuses for goals achieved and money from sponsors. The same media reported that Vettel was the closest to the multiple champion with $ 41.5 million. And as a reference to what a driver at the bottom of the grid charges, last year Nicholas Latifi (Williams) received $ 900,000 and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), about $ 600,000.
Everyone expected this renewal between Hamilton and Mercedes, but perhaps it was surprising that the extension of the link is one year. There are some reasons to understand what happened. The first is that in 2022 a technical regulation is released with a radical change and there will be new cars. It will be a very different category. It remains to be seen if Mercedes can have the best car and if not, if Lewis will want to continue. Another reason is that the German team itself decides to stay in a global context that changed with the COVID-19 pandemic and the drop in sales, something that the Stuttgart factory will decide. That is why in 2020 the rumor sounded about the possibility of the team being bought by INEOS, one of its main sponsors and one of the three shareholders in equal parts of the team.
Another possibility would be an eventual move to Aston Martin, where this year Vettel will race. In the English team Toto Wolff is one of its shareholders and the Austrian team-manager, current boss of Mercedes, is close friends with Hamilton.
In 2020, the 36-year-old Hamilton will enter his 15th season in F1 seeking to win his eighth world title (the fifth in a row) and surpass the mark of Michael Schumacher, with whom he currently shares the pinnacle of motorsport’s premier class. That could be another motive for Lewis’s one-season rubric: outperforming Schumi and retiring in all the glory. (GG) (Infobae)