Enea Bastianini provides rare positivity amid KTM money woes

While rumors of Hamilton’s contract with the Prancing Horse have floated around ever since, a recent James Allen on F1 podcast has offered further details about just what the deal may entail.

As a seven-time World Champion, it is no surprise that Lewis Hamilton commands a hefty sum for his services.

The driver, who was paid handsomely during his tenure at Mercedes, likely would not have made a swap to a new team if it meant taking a huge pay-cut.

But from the moment Hamilton’s 2025 contract with Scuderia Ferrari was revealed, rumors swirled about its exact details.

How many years would Hamilton race with the team, considering he would turn 40 before the start of the year? And how much would he be paid?

Some initial estimates proposed Hamilton would be making a stunning $400 million during his Ferrari tenure, which, though an eye-watering amount, is still not as much as the deals inked by baseball’s Shohei Otani or football’s Lionel Messi.

In mid-January, Formula 1 journalist Ben Hunt joined the James Allen on F1 podcast to discuss just what Lewis Hamilton’s future will look like — starting with the terms of his Ferrari contract.

Our first hint comes from Allen himself, who says, “There’s the line that he had to make a choice: Where do I have the biggest chance to win the Championship in ’25, ’26, ’27, and he said Ferrari.”

Hamilton’s deal has been rumored to last for several years; the three-year timeline proposed by Allen would make sense for a driver who has just turned 40 years old.

Here, Hunt joined the conversation…

“You could be right,” he concluded, “and they’re paying him more than Mercedes were.

“I’ve seen figure between 50 and 55 million a year, is what’s speculated.”

While it’s unclear exactly what form of currency Hunt is describing — pounds, euros, or dollars — the sum is still quite handsome.

At Mercedes, Forbes estimated that Hamilton was making $55 million in 2024.

While the exact details of Hamilton’s contract remain murky, a much better picture has begun to take shape.