Okay, so, I’ve always been super curious about F1. It’s like, those cars go insanely fast, and the pit stops? Blink, and you’ll miss ’em. But the people who are part of the pit crew, how much do they actually make? I did some digging, and here’s the lowdown.
First off, I watched a bunch of F1 races and those pit stop videos. Man, it’s intense! Those guys are like, ninjas changing tires and refueling in, like, two seconds flat. I mean, I can barely change a lightbulb in that time.
- After that, I looked up some information. I was wondering, “How do you even get to be part of a pit crew?” Turns out, you gotta be part of the team already, you know, like a mechanic or someone working in the garage. It’s not like NASCAR, where they sometimes have people from outside the team just for pit stops.
And because I was curious, I really wanted to know how much money these people make. It’s not super easy to find exact numbers. Seems like it depends on a lot of stuff.
- How long you’ve been doing it, what exactly you do during the pit stop, how well the team is doing, and if there are any bonuses.
I did some more searching and found some broad numbers. It seems like the yearly pay can be all over the place.
- Like, if you’re the guy with the fire extinguisher, it might be around $30,000. But then, the crew chief, the guy calling the shots, could be pulling in a cool million! I mean, whoa!
Also, it seems like the crew chief has a bunch of responsibilities, so the high pay makes sense.
- Picking the right tires for the race, making sure everyone knows what they’re doing, all that stuff. It’s a lot of pressure, you know?
I even saw that Max Verstappen, he’s like the top driver right now, is making around $75 million in 2024. That’s a whole lot of money.
- $60 million is his base salary, and then he gets like, $15 million in bonuses. That’s insane, right?
So, yeah, that’s what I found out about F1 pit crew salaries. It’s a pretty wide range, from not a ton of money to some serious dough. But one thing’s for sure, those pit stops are crazy fast, and those people are seriously skilled. I think it’s a pretty cool job, even if I’d probably mess up changing those tires.
