How Much Do F1 Esports Drivers Earn?
A look at how much money F1 Esports drivers earn in prize money, salaries, and sponsorships.
F1 Esports Drivers’ Salaries
F1 esports drivers can earn a lot of money if they are successful. The top drivers can earn up to $500,000 from salary and prize money. The next tier of drivers can earn up to $200,000. The salaries are different for each team and each driver.
What is an F1 Esports driver’s salary?
The average F1 Esports driver’s salary is $250,000. The top F1 Esports drivers can earn up to $500,000.
How do F1 Esports driver’s salaries compare to real-life F1 driver’s salaries?
In general, F1 Esports drivers’ salaries are lower than real-life F1 drivers’ salaries. However, there is a lot of variation depending on the driver’s individual skillset, results, and popularity. The best F1 Esports drivers can earn up to $250,000 per year, which is still significantly lower than the $10 million that the highest-paid real-life F1 drivers earn.
F1 Esports Teams’ Sponsorships
F1 teams receive a lot of their funding from sponsorships from various companies. These sponsorships can be in the form of money, equipment, or other resources. The teams use this money to pay their drivers, staff, and other expenses. So, how much do F1 esports drivers earn from these sponsorships?
What sponsorships do F1 Esports teams have?
In 2019, the F1 Esports Series saw a total of 12 teams and 26 drivers compete for the championship title. These teams were supported by a number of different sponsors, with some of the biggest names in motorsport and gaming getting involved in the competition.
The most notable team sponsorships came from the likes of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports, Red Bull Racing Esports, McLaren Shadow, Renault Sport Team Vitality and Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN. These world-renowned brands helped to bring a level of legitimacy to the F1 Esports Series and attracted a large number of viewers and fans to the competition.
Other notable sponsors included DHL, which served as the official logistics partner of the F1 Esports Series, while fast-food chain KFC was also an official partner of the series. Gaming peripheral manufacturer Logitech G also had a presence in the competition, with several teams using its products to compete.
How do these sponsorships affect the drivers’ salaries?
The top three F1 esports teams – Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari – all have partnerships with real-world sponsors, which helps generate revenue for the teams and, in turn, the drivers.
These sponsorship deals are worth millions of dollars and help to cover the costs of running an F1 esports team. The drivers themselves will also receive a proportion of this sponsorship money, which will boost their overall salaries.
It is not just the top teams that benefit from these partnerships – smaller teams are also able to secure valuable sponsorships. For example, the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Esports team has partnered with Logitech G, while Williams Esports has partnered with Razer. These deals help to ensure that all teams can compete on a level playing field.
So, how much do F1 esports drivers earn from these sponsorship deals? It is difficult to say as it varies from team to team and driver to driver. However, it is safe to say that the top drivers will be earning six-figure salaries thanks to their sponsorships.
F1 Esports Drivers’ Prize Money
F1 esports drivers can earn a lot of money from prize money, sponsorships, and streams. The exact amount that they earn depends on how well they do in races and how popular they are. The prize money for winning a race can range from $500 to $5,000.
How much prize money do F1 Esports drivers earn?
The total prize fund for the inaugural F1 Esports Series is $200,000. The winner of the Championship will take home $50,000, with the runner-up earning $25,000 and third place receiving $15,000. The prize money then decreases incrementally, with the fourth placed driver taking home $10,000, fifth place $5,000 and so on. In total, 20 drivers will earn prize money.
The prize fund is just a fraction of what real-life F1 drivers earn. For example, in 2017 FIA confirmed that the minimum amount a driver could earn in prize money was $380,585. However, this is just a fraction of what the highest-earning drivers on the grid take home. For example, Lewis Hamilton earned an estimated $46 million in 2017 while Sebastian Vettel earned an estimated $40 million.
How does this compare to real-life F1 drivers’ prize money?
While the prize money for F1 esports drivers is certainly nothing to scoff at, it doesn’t compare to what real-life F1 drivers earn. The top real-life F1 driver, Lewis Hamilton, earned $51 million in prize money in 2020 alone. That’s nearly double what the entire prize pool for the F1 esports series was in 2020.
