How much does a Formula 1 racing driver earn?
02/04/2017
A lot, you will answer, an F1 driver earns enormous amounts of money. That's what people thought almost 50 years ago. Back then, Adriano Cimarosti wanted to know exactly how much and, as editor of Automobil Revue , he counted everything up exactly, not to mention all the amounts in Swiss francs, because after all, all the drivers had their bank accounts in Switzerland.
CHF 7000 was paid for each car starting at a Grand Prix, and works cars from Lotus, Matra and Brabham received an additional CHF 1000 because they had been the most successful in 1969.
Those who qualified in practice received a further CHF 5000, and there was an additional bonus of CHF 1000 for each Grand Prix won in the previous year; second and third places were also remunerated with smaller amounts. For Jackie Stewart, for example, this previous year's bonus amounted to 6500 francs, Ickx received 3250 francs, Rindt 1750 francs and Siffert 750 francs. The bonus rule was then adjusted for the second half of the 1970 racing year and related to the first half of 1970.
The fastest driver in training received an additional 1000 francs, the second fastest 350 francs.
Intermediate placings during the Grand Prix itself were also rewarded, with a maximum of three times four thousand francs, i.e. 12,000 francs.
And of course the final classification was also worth good money. The winner received 20,000 francs, fourth place 10,000 francs and twentieth place 500 francs.
This meant that Jackie Stewart, for example, could earn 51,500 francs in one weekend if he was ahead in practice and in the race. If things went less well, because he only came third in training and dropped out early in the race, he still earned 18,500 francs. The money did not belong to him alone, but of course had to be shared between the driver and the team. So if Stewart received around half, that was between 9,000 and 26,000 francs.
Hamilton or Alonso wouldn't even get up in the morning for that today, but of course the franc is no longer worth quite as much as it was back then. In 1970, Stewart could certainly have bought one to four VW Beetles (6500 francs) from his personal salary, whereas nowadays a Golf costs 20,000 francs or more.
The salaries, which were high by the standards of the time, were also justified by the high expenses that the teams had to incur, as a Formula 1 monoposto cost around 150,000 to 200,000 francs in 1970. Today, however, you would only get the front spoiler for that, if it were enough.
