F1 Salaries vs Performance: Most Overpaid Drivers This Season, Ranked!
1. Carlos Sainz (Spain) – Score: 0.5
The most overpaid driver this season is Carlos Sainz. With only 16 points so far, zero podium positions and zero fastest laps, Sainz’s performance is not doing much to justify his estimated $10,000,000 salary. Sainz has secured a 50% head-to-head win rate against his Williams teammate Alex Albon, but his overall performance score is only 1.81 out of 10 this season.
2. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) – Score: 1.0
Lewis Hamilton’s performance this season (score: 3.0/10), coupled with the reportedly second highest base salary ($50,000,000), make him the second most overpaid driver in the 2025 season. With no podium positions achieved so far this season, no fastest laps, one retirement and one disqualification, Hamilton is certainly behind everybody’s expectations of such an iconic driver. However, with 117 points to his name, he is not yet out of a chance of winning the world championship.
3. Fernando Alonso (Spain) – Score: 1.5
In third is Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. He currently only ranks 12th, with no chance of winning the world championship, having secured only 30 points this season. Alonso’s base salary, however, amounts to a whopping $18,000,000. He has not finished in a podium position or secured a fastest lap this season, but has had to retire from four races so far, earning him a performance score of 2.32 in the ranking.
Which Drivers are being Underpaid?
| Rank | Driver | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Fastest Laps | Points | % win: head-to-head (qualifying) | Performance Index (/10) | Salary ($) | Score out of 10 |
| 1 | Isack Hadjar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 38 | 75% | 2.72 | 935,000 | 9.50 |
| 2 | Oliver Bearman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 50% | 2.22 | 1,000,000 | 9.00 |
| 3 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 63% | 2.10 | 1,000,000 | 8.50 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 324 | 56% | 9.15 | 20,000,000 | 8.00 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | 5 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 293 | 44% | 7.96 | 20,000,000 | 7.50 |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 19% | 1.62 | 1,000,000 | 7.00 |
| 7 | George Russell | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 194 | 94% | 6.15 | 15,000,000 | 6.50 |
| 8 | Kimi Antonelli | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 66 | 6% | 1.99 | 2,000,000 | 6.00 |
| 9 | Max Verstappen | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 230 | 100% | 7.14 | 55,000,000 | 5.50 |
*The higher the score, the more underpaid the driver. You can access the complete dataset here.
4. Oscar Piastri (Australia) – Score: 8.0
Oscar Piastri doesn’t just top the current season’s leaderboard, but is also among the top 5 of the most underpaid drivers this season. Having finished in first place at a total of 7 out of 16 Grands Prix, Piastri has won the most races so far this season, coming 2nd in 3 Grands Prix and 3rd in 4 more races, including the most recent one in Italy, putting him at 324 points total. He completed the fastest lap in 5 Grands Prix, without retiring from a single race, earning him a performance score of 9.24 out of 10 in this study – the highest value in the ranking. At the same time, Piastri’s estimated salary amounts to only $20,000,000 – less than a half of Max Verstappen’s earnings.
5. Lando Norris (Great Britain) – Score: 7.5
Lando Norris ranks as fifth most underpaid driver this season. Piastri’s teammate at McLaren has achieved the second highest performance index score at 7.86, finishing in first in 5 Grands Prix, second in 7 and third once – 13 podium positions in 16 races, while having had to retire at two. Having completed the fastest lap at 6 Grands Prix, Norris has the highest number fastest laps to his name this season as well. His total points this season amount to 293, which currently sees him in second behind Piastri in the F1 standings. Taking into account his salary of $20,000,000, Norris receives an overall score of 7.5, close behind Piastri.
9. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) – Score: 5.5
Max Verstappen ranks ninth in the study out of 21 drivers, making him just about worth his money to Red Bull. Verstappen is, according to various reports, the highest earning driver this season, with a base salary of $55,000,000. Contrasted with his performance so far, this puts him at an overall score of 5.5 out of 10. Having retired only at one race, Verstappen has finished in first three times, most recently at Italy’s Grand Prix, and in second four times. He has only completed the fastest lap at one race so far, however. In the current standings, Verstappen ranks third with 230 points and somewhat of a gap to close between himself, Norris and Piastri.
