Analysis: Formula 1's over paid and best bargain drivers

The report compares driver salaries to performance data across 18 races this season ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin.

According to the study, Pierre Gasly is this year’s most overpaid driver. The Frenchman has earned $10 million with just 20 points to his name and no podiums. Fernando Alonso ranks second, taking home $18 million but scoring only 36 points, while Williams’ Carlos Sainz is third with one podium and 32 points from his $10 million salary.

Hamilton sits fourth on the list, with Fanatix noting his $50 million Ferrari deal has yielded “no podiums, one fastest lap, and one disqualification” in 18 races. The Briton’s performance score of 2.59 out of 10 and a 211-point deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri underline a season well below expectations. He currently trails teammate Charles Leclerc by 48 points in the Drivers’ Championship.

On the other side of the scale, the analysis names French rookie Isack Hadjar as the most underpaid driver of 2025. Earning just $935,000, Hadjar has outscored several established names, including Gasly, Sainz, and Esteban Ocon, with 39 points and a 72% qualifying win rate.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri ranks as the second most underpaid driver. Despite seven victories and 336 points, his $20 million salary is less than half that of Max Verstappen’s $55 million. His McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, also features high on the value list, having scored 314 points and five wins for the same $20 million figure.

Fanatix’s updated review highlights the vast disparity between pay and performance across the grid. Hamilton’s struggles, Alonso’s decline, and the emergence of new-generation drivers like Piastri and Hadjar illustrate a shifting balance in Formula 1, where value on track no longer aligns neatly with salary figures.

With six rounds remaining, starting in Austin this weekend, the study underlines that the sport’s next generation is delivering far more for far less.

Fanatix analysed Formula 1’s 2025 season data to determine which drivers are the most over or underpaid relative to their performance. The study combined race results, qualifying records, reliability statistics, and estimated base salaries sourced from Spotrac and F1 databases.

To ensure fairness between full- and part-season drivers, all performance metrics such as wins, points, and retirements were converted into per-race averages and scaled from 0 to 10 using min–max normalisation. A weighted Performance Index (/10) was then created, with higher weight given to metrics reflecting competitiveness, such as wins and points.

Because driver salaries range widely—from about $1 million to $55 million—the team applied a logarithmic transformation to reduce distortion before calculating each driver’s performance-per-salary score. This ensured that performance remained the dominant factor while still accounting for salary.

Fanatix noted that the model excludes bonuses and commercial factors such as driver marketability or fanbase influence. Actual contract values may differ from estimates, and varying metric weights could slightly change the rankings, but the analysis provides a consistent, data-driven measure of value for money on the 2025 F1 grid.