Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton by a whopping $15.9M to become the highest-paid F1 driver in 2024

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has eclipsed his arch-rival and Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton to become the highest-paid F1 driver in the 2024 season. The duo are arguably two of the best drivers on the current grid and have competed against each other at the top of the field since 2016.

The pair were involved in one of the most iconic championship battles in 2021, which went the way of the Dutchman in controversial fashion. After this achievement, the 27-year-old signed a long-term deal with the Austrian team that would see him race for them until the end of the 2028 season and also gave him a huge salary bump.

In a list released by Sportico- Business of Sport, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were the only two drivers in the Top 100 highest-paid athletes of 2024. The four-time F1 world champion came in 18th while the Brit finished in 22nd.

As per the list, the Red Bull driver made $76m last year with $70m coming from his salary and bonuses which included a fourth successive title. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who left Mercedes at the end of last year, made $60.1m with $41.1m being in salary and bonuses and had a gap of $15.9m to his rival.

The two drivers could once again find themselves on the exclusive list in 2025 but the British driver will hope that he can close the gap or even eclipse Verstappen as he joins Ferrari this year.

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Dutch driver predicts a battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2025

GTRacing driver Jeroen Bleekemolen stated that he had hopes that fans might see another edition of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battles in the 2025 season.

Speaking with RacingNews365, the Dutch driver gave his opinion on the rivalry and reflected (via PlanetF1):

“Somehow I hope that the Hamilton-Verstappen fight is coming again. Of course, we had that season when they fought against each other and that ended a bit difficult, with a lot of incidents in the season itself. But that is long behind those two. They have a lot of respect for each other, you can see that.

"That is all forgiven and forgotten. It will really be hard again when things go between them again. But they are two heroes, so it would be nice. Hamilton is really not going to drive at the top for another five, six years, so it’s his last chance at glory. So I actually hope he still has a chance.”

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have not consistently fought for race wins and podiums in the past three seasons due to the gulf in performance between Red Bull and Mercedes in terms of the current generation of cars which were introduced in 2022.