Patronise F1

Kimi Raikkonen's desperation not to leave the Ferrari team without getting his salary in full has been explained by the publication of the 2009 drivers salaries, showing that Raikkonen's contract was worth more than double that of the second highest earner.

The list, compiled by Arabian Business magazine, showed that total driver salaries in 2009 topped $130 million, proving that the FIA were probably right to try and keep salaries out of their proposed budget cap earlier in the season.

Heading the list were, somewhat predictably, the three world champions in the field, with Kimi Raikkonen heading Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. But Raikkonen's Ferrari deal was shown to be worth an underpant-moistening $45 million, some $27 million more than Hamilton's McLaren deal, and a full $30 million more than Alonso's contract with Renault.

Presumably, given Kimi's results throughout 2009, his paycheque was not performance-related, though the ludicrously high salary figure for the Finn lends credence to rumours that Toyota and McLaren are struggling to complete a deal with the Finn for 2010 simply because of his wage expectations.

Behind the big three, Williams driver Nico Rosberg was best of the rest, netting $8.5 million for his 2009 work, though some would say that he is worth every penny, while world champion Jenson Button, currently in the middle of moaning his way to a higher wage with Brawn GP, took home "only" $5 million this season, with his title contending team mate Rubens Barrichello having to somehow survive on a paltry $1 million.

At the bottom of the list, it was revealed that Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil at Force India, Romain Grosjean at Renault and Kazuki Nakajima at Williams all received no salary this year, the penniless fools, while there were sadly no details on the size of either Sebastien Bourdais or Nelson Piquet Jr's payoffs from their teams.

Tom Rubython, the reporter who compiled the list, snarkily noted that: "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."