Lewis Hamilton Will Be P267 Million Richer if He Wins 8th Championship Title
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Seven-time Formula One World Driver’s Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton was reportedly promised a huge £4million (P267million) bonus if he wins his 8th World Driver’s Championship later today (Sunday, December 10) at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix according to The Sun.
Hamilton actually doesn’t need to win the race, but he has to score at least one more point than his rival Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen in today’s race. Currently, both drivers are exactly equal in points in the F1 standings at 369.5.
Lewis Hamilton stands between Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen
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However, if both drivers did not finish the race and fail to score any points, Hamilton will lose the championship because the rule states that, at the end of the championship season, in the event two or more drivers have equal accumulated points, the driver with the most first place race wins will win the championship.
One very weird permutation and scenario is that if even Hamilton finishes 9th place, and Verstappen finished 10th but wins the fastest lap award, he will be awarded one single point, making both of them equal in standing, which makes Verstappen win the championship even if he loses to Hamilton on the last race.
Hamilton, who is now 36 years old, makes around £40 million (P2.672 billion) with his contract with the Mercedes team and the £4 million bonus should be a lucrative addition to his paycheck for the year at the season finale.
Currently, the British driver’s net worth is estimated to be around £244million (P16.3 billion), making him one of the highest earning athletes in the world. Forbes lists him as the 8th highest-earning sports star globally. Aside from his huge bonus, the rest of the Mercedes team will be given a £17.5million bonus. There are about 1,000 employees in the team’s HQ in Brackley, U.K., plus another 750 staff in its engine plant in Brixworth that comes up with an average take home of £10,000 (P668,000).
Verstappen, who is only 24 years old, is estimated to be worth around £46million (P3.07bilion), with a salary at Red Bull of £18.2million (P1.215 billion) a year
Hamilton made his Formula One debut with team McLaren in 2007. He was a Mercedes F1 engine customer and won his first World Driver’s Championship the following year. He left McLaren team to join the Mercedes team in 2013 and won six out of seven World Drivers’ Championships, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
In 2020, Hamilton broke Michael Schumacher’s win record and is now holds the all-time race win record holder in Formula One, with 103 races total, beating Schumacher’s record 91 wins, which he has held until 2020. If he wins this eighth championship title, one can argue that he could be considered the greatest of all time.
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