Hamilton lone racer to feature in highest-paid Top 10 athletes of decade

Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is the lone racer to feature in Top 10 of the Forbes Highest-Paid Athletes of the past decade.

Going by the trend, Forbes presented a Top 10 of the world’s highest-paid athletes of the decade (2010-2019) gone by, where only one racer featured in the list with one other tennis player along with two each from boxing, football, golf and basketball.

The list is headed by boxer Floyd Mayweather with $915 million in his pocket, as the Top 10 is rounded out by Mercedes F1 star Hamilton, with $400 million made, in the decade where the British racer won five world championships and finished second once.

It is no surprise for Hamilton to be in the Top 10 as he has been a consistent name in the Top 100 of every yearly Forbes list. In 2018, he was 12th in the Top 100 but he fell to be a joint 13th in 2019 along with boxer Anthony Joshua.

They both earned $55 million in the period, with $45 million from salary and $10 million coming from endorsements. Hamilton’s salary increased from $42 million to $45 million from the past year, while endorsements increased from $9 million to $ 10 million.

While Hamilton had an increment, there was a big fall for Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, though, with the German dropping from 18th to be 30th on the list. He made $40.3 million in the period, with $40 million in salary and only $300 K in endorsements.

The four-time F1 champion’s salary fell from $42.3 million to $40 million, while his endorsements figure remained the same. With Fernando Alonso no longer racing in F1, the Spaniard disappeared from the list after being 39th in 2018.

As per Forbes, the calculation takes the endorsement income as an estimate of sponsorships, appearance fees and licensing incomes for the 12-month period – which is taken into account on the basis of conversations made with the insiders.

The tax deductions or agents’ fees and investment incomes made by the athletes during the same period are not included in the above calculation. Footballer Lionel Messi pipped boxer Floyd Mayweather to be the highest earner with Cristiano Ronaldo second.

Here’s the Top 100 of the 2019 list

Here’s the 2018 article featuring only three racers

Here’s the Top 10 of 2019 as chose by team bosses and selected drivers

Here Lewis Hamilton explains why he takes small breaks during briefings

Here’s onboard of Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi’s swap

Here’s Sebastian Vettel on where Ferrari missed the trick