George Russell has revealed how much he earned in his first season as a Formula 1 driver and the amount will surprise fans.
Russell has been in F1 since 2019, having spent three seasons with Williams before being promoted to a Mercedes race seat.
He is a two-time race winner, having taken the chequered flag at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix and 2024 Austrian Grand Prix. He had a third win taken from him in Belgium this year after his car was found to be underweight.
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Despite Mercedes struggling for pace through parts of this season, Russell still regularly competes for podiums and three to his name in 2024.
But back in 2019, his introduction to F1 was a harsh one, with the Williams car of that season locked at the back of the grid for the entire season.
Russell would score zero points to team-mate Robert Kubica's one, but was regularly ahead of the much more experienced Pole.
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He finished 11th in Germany behind Kubica, but both drivers needed retirements or incidents ahead of them to be in contention for points.
Russell has revealed how much he earned as a base salary for that first season - and fans were left stunned.
He was speaking in his role as the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, a role he assumed following Sebastian Vettel's retirement in 2022.
Specifically referencing a case during last season's Qatar Grand Prix, where Hamilton was fined €50,000 for crossing the track but could have been fined €1 million under new regulations, Russell said: "I think it's pretty ridiculous that a driver could be fined €1 million.
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"In my first year of F1, I was on a five-figure salary and actually lost over six figures in that first year from paying for my trainer, paying for flights, paying for an assistant. And that's probably the case for 25 per cent of the grid.
"We're doing what we love, so we're not complaining about that. But if you take a year one driver who probably by the end of the year is losing over €100,000 because of the investments he has to make, you fine them a million, what's going to happen?"
While F1 drivers earn significantly more than Russell's base salary as first year drivers in 2024 - most drivers earn several millions per year - the Brit was in a much different situation in 2019.
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The sport as a whole was still growing to the level it is today, and Williams were in significant financial trouble.
That situation worsened over the following year, forcing team principal Claire Williams to sell the team in 2020 to Dorilton Capital, who have invested heavily. They now have Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz under contract for 2025.
Topics: Formula 1, George Russell, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton
Ryan Smart