Kimi named F1 Richest

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has been named Formula One's biggest earner, pocketing nearly three times as much as the next best-paid driver.

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The Finn's 2009 salary is £27.35 million, according to a list published by Arabian Business magazine, dwarfing the £10.9m paid to outgoing world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Another former world champion, Renault's Fernando Alonso took home £9.1m, with Williams' Nico Rosberg surprisingly fourth ahead of Raikkonen team-mate Felipe Massa.

Raikkonen leaves Ferrari at the end of the season, when Alonso replaces him, and his massive pay demands explain his difficulty securing a drive for 2010, with McLaren and Toyota interested in his services.

Newly crowned world champion Jenson Button earned 'just' £3.05m after taking a 50 per cent pay cut to drive for Brawn in 2009.

The Briton is in negotiations over a new deal with Brawn, and has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave if the team cannot restore his salary to its 2008 level.

Four drivers went unpaid - Kazuki Nakajima (Williams), Romain Grosjean (Renault) and Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi (both Force India F1) - went unpaid.

Total salaries for F1 drivers totalled £81.9m, an average of £3.9m per driver.

List compiler Tom Rubython said: "There may be a global recession going on but being an F1 driver means you earned a fortune this year. These figures are just basic salaries, and don't include sponsorship and other income, which can often be three times that amount."

Full list of F1 2009 driver salaries:

1. Kimi Raikkonen £27.35m

2. Lewis Hamilton £10.9m

3. Fernando Alonso £9.1m

4. Nico Rosberg £5.15m

5. Felipe Massa £4.85m

6. Jarno Trulli £3.95m

7. Sebastian Vettel £3.65m

8. Mark Webber £3.35m

9. Jenson Button £3.05m

10. Robert Kubica £2.75m

11. Heikki Kovalainen £2.1m

12. Nick Heidfeld £1.7m

13. Timo Glock £1.2m

14. Giancarlo Fisichella £0.9m

15. Sébastien Buemi £0.9m

16. Rubens Barrichello £600,000

17. Jaime Alguersuari £300,000

18. Vitantonio Liuzzi £0

19. Adrian Sutil £0

20. Romain Grosjean £0

21. Kazuki Nakajima £0

What the F1 teams spent on drivers in 2009:

1. Ferrari £32.2m

2. McLaren-Mercedes £13.05m

3. Renault £9.1m

4. Red Bull Racing £7m

5=. Toyota £5.15m

5=. Williams £5.15m

7. BMW-Sauber £4.45m

8. Brawn GP £3.65m

9. Scuderia Toro Rosso £1.2m

10. Force India £900,000