Who Are The F1 Drivers For 2020

This promoted Verstappen to second, McLaren driver Lando Norris to third, and Alexander Albon to fourth. In an eventful race, featuring three safety car periods and the retirements of nine drivers, Bottas won, ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Norris. Hamilton crossed the line in second place, but received a five-second time penalty after a collision with Albon, who soon retired; after the penalty was applied, Hamilton finished fourth, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr., Sergio Pérez and Pierre Gasly.

With few Formula 1 driver salaries publicly available, Forbes relied on financial documents, legal filings and press leaks as well as conversations with industry insiders and consultants to compile this list. Drivers typically receive a base salary plus bonuses for points scored or for race or championship wins, with the amount depending on the size of the team and the experience of the driver. We won't go into recent event surrounding one of Haas's new signings for 2020 for many reasons, but it's safe to say that all eyes will be on the only American team in F1 in 2021. Long-standing drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both depart the team – Magnussen to IMSA and Grosjean to an uncertain future.

It will be an interesting transition for the team, as Grosjean had been a Haas F1 driver for its entire history, leaving a slightly insecure Renault seat to join in 2016. Jumping into their shoes are new F2 champion Mick Schumacher (son of a certain seven-time champion whose name isn't Hamilton) and Russian Nikita Mazepin. Again we won't go into Mazepin's recent actions off the track, but if he does race for Haas he will be on his best behaviour.

It will be interesting to see how he copes in F1, and the atmosphere at Haas has hardly seemed like the calmest to step into over the last few years. Racing Point, which used to be Force India, which used to be Spyker, which used to be Midland, which used to be Jordan, becomes an Aston Martin works team in 2021, marking the company's return to F1 for the first time in 60 years. Naturally both shall be retained to drive the Mercedes-clone RP20 for a second season? Stroll – a talented driver no doubt but also the son of the team's owner and Aston Martin shareholder Lawrence – will remain, but Perez finds himself out of a drive just a week after finally taking his first F1 win.

On the face of it making a step forward , Vettel arrives as a refugee from a relationship that went sour and will be looking to reclaim some of his former lustre – the 53-time race winner only stood on the podium once in 2020. The pandemic required changes to the format of a race weekend, which included abandoning the drivers' parade and pre-race assembly for the host venue's national anthem. The FIA introduced limits to the number of team personnel who could be on the starting grid to prepare cars and changed the cut-off times for cars to leave pit lane to minimise the amount of time team personnel spent on the grid.

Tyre supplier Pirelli was also required to provide an identical allocation of tyre compounds to all teams and drivers. Where Pirelli were previously required to announce compounds for a race several weeks in advance, this window was reduced to two weeks, allowing them to respond to anticipated changes to the calendar. Antonio Giovinazzi flies the flag for Italy as the motorsport mad nation champs at the bit for its next F1 star.

The pilota from Puglia can punch his way through the pack and pull off a plucky pass. He showcased this natural racing acumen during a blistering 2016 GP2 campaign where he finished a close runner-up to teammate Pierre Gasly. Giovinazzi concedes he went from hero to zero after two races as a stand-in for Sauber in 2017 when a brilliantly composed F1 debut in Melbourne was followed by two shunts in Shanghai. But a stint as Ferrari reserve gave him time to re-group and reflect ahead of his first full season in 2019, paired alongside Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo.

Sebastian Vettel won four straight championships with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013 before jumping to Ferrari, a stint that ended with a disappointing 2020 for both the driver and the team. Leading the pack is Mercedes superstar Lewis Hamilton, who is on pace to earn $62 million on the track in 2021. That figure includes a $55 million base salary—more than double what his closest competitor is guaranteed—as well as a projected $7 million in bonuses for race wins. In addition to championships and grands prix won, he also holds the records for pole positions, podium finishes, points finishes and career points. Hamilton was ruled out of the Sakhir Grand Prix after testing positive for the coronavirus and was replaced by Williams' George Russell. Russell impressed by taking the lead from new teammate and pole-sitter Bottas and led for 59 laps, before being taken out of contention by first a tyre mix-up by Mercedes and then a late-race puncture, eventually finishing 9th.

Despite being dropped to last position through a lap 1 collision with Leclerc and Verstappen, Pérez took his first race victory, followed by Esteban Ocon taking his first podium finish in 2nd and Stroll finishing 3rd. With his win, Pérez took the record for the most race starts before a first victory, with 190 race starts, beating Mark Webber's record of 130 starts before his win at the 2009 German Grand Prix. The inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix, Ferrari's 1000th Grand Prix start, resulted in Hamilton's sixth race win of the season, and Mercedes's third 1–2 finish. Bottas overtook Hamilton into turn one before a major collision at turn two caused the retirement of both Verstappen and Gasly. This brought out the safety car for 8 laps to allow for the debris to be cleared. At the end of the safety car period, a major misunderstanding in the upper midfield led to a large collision down the pit straight, causing the retirement of Nicholas Latifi, Kevin Magnussen, Giovinazzi and Sainz Jr., and a red flag period.

At the first restart, Hamilton overtook Bottas and led the race from there onwards. On lap 42, Ricciardo looked poised for his first podium since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix when Stroll's Racing Point spun off the track due to a puncture, causing the second red flag of the race. This was the first time since the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix that there were two red flag periods in one race. Red Bull's Alexander Albon overtook Ricciardo in the closing laps, earning his first ever podium and the first podium for a Thai driver in Formula One. It is talent that has brought him this far and he will need to show more of the same as he acclimatises to F1, if he is to one day follow in his father's footsteps and claim a race seat with the Scuderia.

Nikita Mazepin might be bringing a healthy chunk of budget with him to the Haas team, but do not be fooled into thinking he has not also got the driving chops to go with it. The Russian – the fourth to compete in F1 after Vitaly Petrov, Sergey Sirotkin and Daniil Kvyat – has an impressive CV in the junior formulas, finishing runner-up in the 2018 GP3 championship with four race wins. And after taking his time to find his feet in his first season of F2 in 2019, he came into his own in 2020, notching up six podiums – including two victories – on his way to fifth in the standings. Backed by Mercedes, he won the GP3 title the following year and was halfway through a season of DTM in 2016 when he was offered the chance to replace Rio Haryanto at the minnow Manor team from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. That opportunity led to a full-time seat the following year with Force India, where his wheel-to-wheel duels with highly rated teammate Sergio Perez quickly marked him out as a rising star.

But when Lawrence Stroll, father of racer Lance, stepped in midway through 2018 to secure the squad's financial future, the writing was on the wall for Ocon, who was moved aside at the end of the year to allow Stroll Jnr to join from Williams. Ocon bided his time, though, and after a year on the side lines as Mercedes' reserve driver, he found his way back into a race seat with Renault in 2020. Esteban looks like he could have been a model with his brown hair and ripped body.

The French driver who made his Formula One debut in 2016 races under Force India. He holds an all-time record for most consecutive finishes from start of career, with 27. Based on a ranking system of qualification performances, races won, podiums won, points wins, overall driving performance, driver-to-car ability and team performance, here is our grade of every F1 driver this season. Formula 1 Grand Prix of BahrainBeing a teammate with 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is not easy.

However, at the start of the unprecedented 2020 season, Valtteri Bottas seemed like he could challenge for the drivers' championship. Drivers and teams are scheduled to compete for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion respectively. After two years away from the F1 track, Fernando Alonso is back with Alpine. The 39-year-old, once at the center of the series' Spygate and Crashgate scandals, has rebuilt himself into a tremendously popular driver, in part by broadening his auto-racing horizons.

In recent years, he has competed in the ​​Indianapolis 500, entered the Dakar Rally and won the endurance races 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona. The Spaniard won the drivers' championship in 2005 and 2006 with Renault—an earlier incarnation of his current team. The Turkish Grand Prix saw Hamilton claim his seventh world title with a race win, equalling Michael Schumacher's record for the most Formula One world titles. He finished on the podium with Sergio Pérez and Sebastian Vettel, whilst in qualifying, Lance Stroll claimed his maiden pole position in rainy conditions.

The Belgian Grand Prix was won by Lewis Hamilton, who led every lap and won by 8 seconds over teammate Valtteri Bottas who finished second ahead of Max Verstappen. On lap 11, Antonio Giovinazzi crashed at Campus corner; one of the wheels of his car came loose and hit the front right suspension of George Russell's car, causing both drivers to retire from the race. Renault achieved a finish of P4 and P5, equalling their best result since their return to the sport in 2016. Arriving as Formula 1's youngest ever competitor at just 17 years old, Verstappen pushed his car, his rivals and the sport's record books to the limit. The baby-faced Dutchman with the heart of a lion took the Toro Rosso – and then the Red Bull – by the horns with his instinctive racing style.

F1's youngest points scorer soon became its youngest race winner – at the age of 18 years and 228 days – with an opportunistic but controlled drive on debut for Red Bull in Barcelona 2016. He claimed pole position at his first national event and to-date is still the youngest driver to ever get pole at a national meeting. Despite early season mechanical issues in this debut season, a switch to the Mick Barrett Racing team and a Tony Kart chassis allowed him to beat drivers vastly more experienced. For the 2010 season, Lando entered the two main national championships in the cadet class racing against drivers up to three years older than him. Having graduated from being a member of the McLaren Young Driver squad to the British F1 team's Test & Reserve driver in 2018, Lando stepped up to a full season in F2. Lando got his Championship title aspirations off to a flying start by winning the opening race in Bahrain.

He then racked up a further 8 podiums throughout the season placing him as Vice-champion. Lewis Hamilton, who replaced Michael Schumacher at Mercedes in 2012, has become an icon on the same level as his predecessor. Last year, Hamilton matched Schumacher's record with his seventh F1 drivers' championship, and he has dominated the competition with his earnings the way that Schumacher, the world's highest-paid athlete in 2000 and 2001, once did. The 36-year-old signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes this summer, following up on a three-year, $140 million deal in 2015 and a two-year, $100 million extension in 2018.

He is also the founder of X44, a team in the new off-road electric-SUV racing series Extreme E. Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen is the driver in pole position to receive that championship bump this year, pushing him up to a projected $42 million in salary and bonuses, comfortably No. 2 on the earnings list. He is followed by Fernando Alonso, with $25 million in his debut season at Alpine. While Lando Norris will be sad to see his good friend Carlos Sainz Jr. depart, he will be delighted to see a man who has seemed like his big brother at times join. When not on track Daniel Ricciardo and Norris have gained reputations as light-hearted kids looking to have some fun. Ricciardo famously caused Norris to cry laughing in a press conference last year, so it seems hopeful that the good atmosphere that McLaren boss Andreas Siedl (mastermind of Porsche's mighty 919 programme) has fostered will remain.

Whether McLaren can build on two seasons of progress will be seen, but in signing Ricciardo they have a race-winner in the team with a proven track record at pushing teams up the grid. Ricciardo's switch to Renault may not have yielded the returns he hoped, but he has no doubt managed to push the team forward up the grid. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton returned for the last race of the season after testing negative for the coronavirus. Verstappen took the pole position and his 10th win in Formula One ahead of Bottas and Hamilton, who finished second and third, respectively. This race was the last for Vettel at Ferrari, after six years, and Pérez at Racing Point, after two years at Racing Point and five at their indirect predecessor, Force India.

It was also the last race at Haas for Kevin Magnussen after seven years in Formula One. Ferrari finished sixth in the World Constructors' Championship, their worst championship result since 1980 when they finished tenth. At the inaugural Eifel Grand Prix, five cars retired in the forms of Russell, Esteban Ocon, Albon, Lando Norris and Bottas, who had started from pole.

Ricciardo claimed his first podium for Renault, finishing the race in third. In a statement in late April, Formula One CEO Chase Carey declared the intention to begin the season on 5 July and a target to hold between 15 and 18 races overall. In June, the first eight races of a rescheduled calendar were confirmed, with the season expected to begin on 5 July with the Austrian Grand Prix.

This revised calendar included two newly named one-off events — both second races at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone — known as the Styrian and the 70th Anniversary Grands Prix respectively. The season-opening Australian Grand Prix was expected to go ahead and all teams and drivers arrived at the venue as planned. Three days before the race was due to take place, McLaren announced their withdrawal from the event after a team member tested positive for the virus. This led to the Grand Prix being cancelled altogether the following morning.

Later that day, it was announced that the Bahrain Grand Prix would be postponed rather than closed to spectators, as would the inaugural Vietnamese Grand Prix. Twenty-two Grands Prix were originally scheduled for the 2020 World Championship. However, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in numerous race cancellations and postponements. A rescheduled calendar consisted of seventeen Grands Prix, nine from the original 2020 calendar and eight other Grands Prix, while the other thirteen original 2020 races were cancelled.

This also meant that the season started with two races in Austria, and later on in the season there were also two races at Silverstone Circuit along with two races at Bahrain International Circuit. Each race is the minimum number of laps that exceeds a total distance of 305 km (189.5 mi). Under the sporting regulations, a minimum of eight races must take place for the season to be considered a championship. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes entered the season as the reigning World Drivers' and World Constructors' champions respectively, after they both won their sixth championship in 2019.

At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Mercedes secured their seventh consecutive Constructors' Championship making them the only team to win seven consecutive championships, breaking Ferrari's record from 1999 to 2004. Mercedes also maintained the distinction of being the only team to win the championship since the 2014 turbo-hybrid engine regulation changes were enacted. Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher's record of seven World Drivers' Championships at the Turkish Grand Prix and broke Schumacher's previous record of 91 career wins at the Portuguese Grand Prix. The 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship was the motor racing championship for Formula One cars which was the 71st running of the Formula One World Championship. It marked the 70th anniversary of the first Formula One World Drivers' Championship. The championship was recognised by the governing body of international motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars.

Drivers and teams competed for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion, respectively. Learning his craft on Finnish roads of ice and snow, he was born to be a Grand Prix racer. Bottas explains that if you can drive on the frozen roads of his homeland then you can drive anywhere. Then there's the Finnish mentality –reserved, diligent and calm the fast lane of F1 does not faze him.

Making his F1 debut with Williams in 2013, Bottas soon became part of the family. Points and podiums followed with the reliable racer even amassing the most points without a win, a record he resented but that showcased his ability. The fact the Finn was such a points machine saw him suddenly promoted to the most coveted seat in F1 – Nico Rosberg's vacant championship-winning seat at Mercedes. If there is one man who knows how big a rollercoaster ride an F1 driver's career can be, it is Pierre Gasly!

The flying Frenchman was called up to make his 2017 debut in Malaysia in place of Daniil Kvyat and, after proving his mettle, he was named a Toro Rosso driver the following year. A further 21 races into his fledgling career, Gasly was moved up again – this time to replace Red Bull big gun Daniel Ricciardo. Raikkonen has a cult status in F1 like no other driver of his generation, but if you ask him why he just shrugs. Maybe it is because of the rugged, raw talent that inspired Sauber to give him his debut in 2001 – and re-sign him for 2019.

Or the never-say-die attitude that clinched the 2007 world title for Ferrari by a single point. Or maybe it's because this is the 'Iceman' who jumped straight into a Jacuzzi on his yacht after retiring in Monaco and who enjoyed an ice cream when a soggy Malaysian GP was red flagged but still live. Although those who know him well say privately, he is an amusing bon viveur, as well as a devoted family man. Sergio Pérez No 11 Debut Australia 2011 Wins 1 Poles 0 Best qualifying 3rd Titles 0 Best finish 4th Last season 4th. Finally given a drive in a top car, this is the opportunity of his career for Pérez.