Reports suggest Hamilton doesn't get a pay rise with new F1 contract

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes officially announced on Monday that they have reached a new agreement. The world champion commits himself to the team for at least a year. But why did those negotiations take so long? That was not due to the salary requirements of the Brit.

If we can believe Mercedes themselves, that was never the problem. When it came to Hamilton's demands, sums of up to 60 million circulated in the rumour circuit in recent months. However, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca, it has now been agreed that Hamilton will earn the same amount as in previous years, about $47 million.

It is still difficult to say whether this stagnation is a result of the coronavirus crisis, which puts jobs at risk for Mercedes worldwide. The fact is that Hamilton seems to have reached the ceiling for what a Formula 1 driver can earn at all. Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, and Michael Schumacher both got stuck somewhere between 40 and 50 million a year.

Salary does not say everything

This means that Hamilton cannot dethrone the highest paid footballers in this world. It was announced that Lionel Messi earns more than half a billion in his current contract, which equates to more than 100 million dollars per season.

Roger Federer proves that the greatest athletes do not have to depend on their salary. He was the highest-earning athlete in the world at $106.3 million, but had a salary of "only" $6.3 million. He raised the remaining 100 million with sponsorship contracts.

This article was written and originally published by Pelle on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.