» Fernando is F1’s biggest earner

Reports in the Spanish media claim that Fernando Alonso is the highest earner on the 2010 grid.

The El Mundo article sourced data from Business Book GP that compiled a top-to-tail list which claimed that Alonso’s retainer from Ferrari – excluding any endorsements – was a cool €30M.

That makes Ferrari’s ‘team orders’ fine from the German Grand Prix equivalent to just over day’s work for Fernando! Small change in the grand scheme of things!

Alonso’s salary nearly doubles that of the next biggest earner on the grid, Lewis Hamilton, who is on €16M – which is also believed to be equivalent to the salary Ferrari is paying former driver Kimi Räikkönen not to race.

Felipe Massa is the third-highest earner on less than half of Alonso’s base, pocketing €14M.

Also earning significantly less than his championship-winning team-mate is Jenson Button, who picks up just over half of Lewis Hamilton’s equivalent salary, with a €9M retainer.

There is equality all round at Mercedes GP, with both its drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg on an €8M base. It must be noted that this income is relative peanuts for Schumacher, whose salary he commanded at Ferrari was believed to be close to seven times that amount in the height of his championship-winning career.

Rubens Barrichello managed to get Sir Frank Williams – a man notorious for not paying his drivers very much – to part with €5.5M each season for his services.

In the cheap seats are Red Bull, who are only paying Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel €4.2M and €2M respectively.

Lotus hired the experience of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli for a cool €3M each per season, and will hoping to generate a return on their investment in the years ahead.

The full earnings list is as follows:

	Driver	Team	Salary
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	€30,000,000
2.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	€19,000,000
3.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	€14,000,000
4.	Jenson Button	McLaren	€9,000,000
5.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	€8,000,000
=.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	€8,000,000
7.	Robert Kubica	Renault	€7,500,000
8.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	€5,500,000
9.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	€4,200,000
10.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus	€3,000,000
=.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus	€3,000,000
12.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	€2,000,000
13.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing	€1,000,000
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams	€700,000
15.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	€500,000
=.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber	€500,000
17.	Jaime Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso	€400,000
=.	Sébastien Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	€400,000
=.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	€400,000
20.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	€200,000
=.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India	€200,000
=.	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin Racing	€200,000
23.	Bruno Senna	Hispania Racing Team	€150,000
24.	Karun Chandhok	Hispania Racing Team	€0
=.	Sakon Yamamoto	Hispania Racing Team	€0