With the Formula 1 2023 season well and truly underway, drivers are witnessing a boom in Instagram followers this past week due to both the start of the season, and the release of Season 5 of Netflix hit ‘Drive to Survive’. Lewis Hamilton currently at the top, having gained 98,730 followers this week.
Interested to uncover the F1 drivers earning potential on social media, experts at RantCasino.com analysed data from Influencer Marketing Hub to discover which driver could earn the most from a sponsored Instagram post.
Top 15 Drivers Potentially Earning the Most Per Instagram Post
| Rank | F1 Driver | Instagram Followers | Estimated earnings per sponsored post (£) |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | 31.7 million | £87,681 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | 10.1 million | £27,632 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | 9.5 million | £26,520 |
| 4 | Carlos Sainz | 6.3 million | £17,366 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | 6 million | £16,732 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | 5.4 million | £15,003 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | 5.2 million | £13,762 |
| 8 | George Russell | 4.1 million | £11,327 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | 3.8 million | £10,575 |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | 3.6 million | £10,200 |
| 11 | Alexander Albon | 1.8 million | £5,207 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | 1.8 million | £4,931 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | 1.4 million | £3,874 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1.4 million | £3,839 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | 920 thousand | £3,605 |
Please find the full data set attached here.
Placing first, and potentially earning the most from sponsored Instagram posts, is Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. With the highest number of followers out of all of the drivers, over 31 million, Hamilton could potentially earn £87,681 per sponsored post. The seven-time world champion finished fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix opening drive, over 50 seconds behind the race winner, Max Verstappen.
In second is Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc with a potential earnings of £27,632 for every sponsored Instagram post (£1,112 more per post than Max Verstappen in third place). Leclerc had quite a disappointing start to the 2023 season due to engine failure, putting him out of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
In third is the current world champion and Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, with 10.1 million Instagram followers and potential earnings of £26,520 per post (£61,161 less than Lewis Hamilton in first place.)
In fourth place is Spanish Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz with a potential Instagram earning of £17,366 per sponsored post. Carlos is currently fourth place after the opening drive in Bahrain (£3,604 more than fellow spanish driver Fernando Alonso.
In fifth place is 23 year old Bristol born Lando Norris, the youngest ever British Formula 1 driver. Lando’s increased racing presence has been matched by his growth on social media, and a sponsored post could fetch the McLaren operator up to £16,732.
Photo credit: cristiano barni/ Shutterstock.com
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Methodology:
- RantCasino.com sought to discover the F1 drivers that could be earning the most through Instagram.
- RantCasino.com created a master list of all the current 2022 Formula 1 drivers using official information from the Formula 1 site.
- To work out the highest potential estimated earnings per sponsored post, RantCasino.com used Influencer Marketing Hub to calculate how much an Instagram account could potentially earn from each sponsored post. This takes into account follower count, as well as other factors like post engagement. The highest estimation of what a post could be worth for each driver was used for the purpose of this study.
- The F1 drivers’ current potential earnings were then ranked from most to least potential earnings.
- The potential earnings were initially collected in US dollars were then converted to Pounds using the conversions of currency calculator Xe.com.
- Data was collected on the 8th of March, 2023 and is accurate as of then.