Many people don’t realise
Sunday was a monumental day for Lando Norris and McLaren with the former winning his first ever driver’s championship and the latter winning their first since 2008 with Lewis Hamilton.
All Norris needed to do was make it onto the podium and he’d outscore Max Verstappen who had been making a late charge in the past few weeks.
Despite a slight scare when Norris was under investigation for potentially leaving the track to overtake Yuki Tsunoda earlier on in the race, the last Grand Prix of the season went without a hitch for McLaren.
This means McLaren have their first winning driver in 17 years and they can celebrate the night away.
With most famous sporting events, prize money is often talked about and a large factor for many competing.
The Premier League champions win around £50m for winning the league, snooker players get £500,000 for winning the World Championship, while tennis players can win £3m for winning Wimbledon.
However, to many people’s surprise, F1 drivers don’t get any money for winning a race, let alone the entire championship.
The F1 official website explains: “Formula 1 drivers don’t get prize money for winning, though they’ll likely receive a nice financial bonus on top of the base salary they’re paid by their team. Prize money is awarded to F1 teams.
“Of course, success can also potentially create further endorsement and sponsorship opportunities.”
This said, teams do get money for winning the constructors’ championship, to the tune of around £100m.
One person posted on X: “Always found it interesting that the driver’s championship holds the most prestige in F1, despite it being a team sport where prize money is distributed based on the success of constructors, not individual drivers.”
