Lewis Hamilton walked into the Hungaroring paddock on Friday as the first Formula 1 driver ever credited with $100 million in a single year of earnings.

Forbes placed him tenth on its 2026 highest-paid athletes list, the only motor racing name in a top ten otherwise built from boxing, football, basketball, baseball and golf.

The magazine put his split at $70m on the track and $30m off it, tracking money earned between 1 May 2025 and 1 May 2026. Cristiano Ronaldo returned to No. 1 overall with a total of $300m.

The Schumacher asterisk

Hamilton is the first F1 driver to nine figures in nominal dollars, Sportico noted in March when it first calculated the milestone. Adjust for inflation, however, and Michael Schumacher already got there during his Ferrari peak.

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Forbes reported his 2004 package at $80 million in combined base and endorsements, split roughly $40m salary and $40m sponsorship, which comfortably clears $100m in today’s money.

The Ferrari cheque is doing most of the work in Hamilton’s number, but the $30m off-track figure is what makes his portfolio look nothing like his predecessors’.

He carries deals with Dior, EA, Lululemon and Rimowa, took an executive producer credit on Apple’s F1: The Movie, and earlier this year drew a wider spotlight through his appearances in Kim Kardashian’s Skims campaigns.

Sixth place in year one at Ferrari

The money arrived with a season he would rather forget. Hamilton finished sixth in the 2025 drivers’ standings, his worst return in 19 years in the sport, and did not stand on a podium in his debut year with Ferrari. Forbes said he “laps the field commercially” regardless.

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The 2026 season has straightened the picture out. Going into the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton is second in the drivers’ championship on 159 points, 45 behind Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli. Ferrari sit second in the constructors’ standings, 73 points off Mercedes.

$100m vs $2m

The gap on the money side of the same title fight is far wider. Antonelli’s Mercedes base is reported at $2 million, joint-19th on the grid, with performance bonuses that can push his on-track total towards $14m.

His personal sponsor roster, headed by Adidas, IWC and Monster Energy, adds another seven-figure sum rather than an eight-figure one.

Antonelli is 19, in his second season, and has six wins from ten rounds. Hamilton is 41, has seven titles behind him, and the largest single-year pay packet in the sport’s history.

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The championship they are chasing does not care which of those is worth more.

Practice at the Hungaroring starts on Friday. Lights out on Sunday is at 3pm local time, with the drivers heading into the summer break the moment they cross the line.

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