Fernando Alonso, the Tiger Woods of Formula One
The headline might be misleading and is by no means an assault to the character of Fernando Alonso. Formula One fanatics and potential tax officers are in the fore, while Raquel Del Rosario, Fernando Alonso’s wife, has nothing to worry about!
This is because the annual list of F1 salaries has been published, making the Spaniard the highest paid driver in the Formula 1 circuit. It is a feat that only Tiger Woods has enjoyed in his professional sports career. Published by Spanish newspaper El Mundo and quoted by Business Book GP, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso’s payroll equals a whopping £30 million, incremented by his external endorsements.
The fact that the handsome amount raises eyebrows is because it is nowhere near the regular F1 pay structure. Lewis Hamilton, currently leading the driver’s standings, earns the second highest wage to the tune of 16 million pounds – nearly half of Alonso’s paycheck. Interestingly, the McLaren Mercedes driver’s salary is nearly the same as former Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn continues to profit from his early payoff when Ferrari broke the contract.
Next on the list is Ferrari team-mate Filipe Massa with £14 million followed by Jenson Button at fifth spot with £9 million to his monthly account. Michael Schumacher earns £8 million with Mercedes GP, which indicates a certain amount of homogeneity in the team as Nico Rosberg gets the same amount.
A noteworthy surprise, if the findings are true, is that Williams’ F1 driver Rubens Barrichello earns more money than both Red Bull Racing drivers! Mark Webber gets £4.2 million while his younger team-mate gets £2 million for driving a car. However, it is understood that both drivers are on considerable bonus agreements for every race victory that they pick up during the regular season.
According to these statistics, Vettel has a lower base pay in comparison to Formula One struggler’s Lotus F1 driver Jarno Trulli. Adrian Sutil looks to be an absolute bargain after his fifth place at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Force India driver earns £200,000. Renault’s Robert Kubica is paid £7.5m while his team-mate Vitaly Petrov gets a comparatively meager amount worth £400,000.
Looking at the teams, Ferrari pays its drivers a total amount of £60m – easily making them the highest spenders of the year in terms of driver expenditure. The position still doesn’t change excluding Kimi Raikkonen’s £16 million paid for contract violations.
McLaren Mercedes spends an aggregate £25 million, Mercedes GP £16 million, Renault £7.9 million, Red Bull Racing £6.2 million, Williams £6.2 million, Lotus £5 million, Virgin £1.2 million, Sauber £1 million, Toro Rosso £800,000, Force India £400,000 and Hispania Racing £150,000 on driver salaries respectively.
However, taking a leaf out of Tiger Woods’ book, it is plain that while money could buy you the best luxuries in life, it can certainly not make you happy or rather, respected. It is also no measure of ensuring performance as non-financial rewards that target esteem and self actualization needs are equally important to an objective person.
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