Work experience wages for Ricciardo

Red Bull F1 team's top points scorer, Daniel Ricciardo, is paid barely one thirtieth of his team mate and reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel – along with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen – are the highest earners in Formula One, based on a list of driver salaries complied by Business Book GP2014 and reported on TomorrowNewsF1.com.

According to the list, each of this trio will take home a stash of $31.6m for their efforts this year. They're followed in the pecking order by Lewis Hamilton ($28.7m), Jenson Button ($23m), Nico Rosberg ($17.2m) and Felipe Massa ($5.7m).

Ricciardo receives $1.1m, a relative pittance in contrast with the other drivers. That will presumably change if his performance remains at the standard he has set during the early part of this year.

Last year, Ferrari's Alonso was the sole highest earner in F1, but he shares top billing in 2014 as Raikkonen scored a hefty pay hike by jumping from Lotus to Ferrari, while Vettel also earned a tidy increment after pocketing his fourth successive F1 driver's title for Red Bull Racing last year.

Nico Hulkenberg also earned a four-fold salary hike (he takes home $5.7m this year) by moving from Sauber to Force India, and teammate Sergio Perez also doubled his pay packet to $4.3m despite being dumped by McLaren at the end of 2013.

As interesting as the salaries are in themselves, it's more interesting to study what sort of value each driver brings to the team in terms of their points scored per million dollars earned.

For example, Ricciardo has so far earned 131 points this season, for the $1.1m he earns. By comparison, teammate Vettel has returned just 88 points to date in return for his fat $31.6m salary.

Do the maths and you'll see this works out at 119 points per million dollars earned for Ricciardo, and a paltry 2.8 points per million dollars for Vettel. It's not hard to see who the bargain is among this pair.

There are other stark disparities in return-on-investment terms within other teams too.

For example, Williams F1's Valteri Bottas has scored 95 points to date in return for his $1.4m salary, while teammate Massa (on $5.7m) has totted up only 40 points. So that's 68 points per million dollars earned for the Finnish driver, and only 7 points per million bucks for the Brazilian veteran.

However, the other Finn, Raikkonen, has looked a bad value proposition this year, as despite taking home the same $31.6m pay packet as Alonso, his Ferrari teammate has battered him out on the track.

Raikkonen has scored just 27 points so far this year (equating to 0.85 points per million dollars earned), while Alonso has doggedly and skilfully racked up 115 points (3.6 points per million dollars) in the underperforming Ferrari.

Among the two front-running Mercedes drivers, Rosberg has so far proved better value than the more fancied Hamilton, scoring 202 points (for a return of 11.7 points per million dollars), while the latter has notched up 191 points (6.7 points per million dollars).

Jenson Button is also a driver who perhaps hasn't delivered the value expected of him, as he has scored only 60 points (albeit in a sub-par McLaren) for a return of 2.6 points per million dollars earned.

These are no doubt some of the stats that F1 team managers will be looking at when they start shopping for new drivers closer to the end of the year.

2014 F1 driver salaries:
1.Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing $31.6m
= Fernando Alonso Ferrari $31.6m
= Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari $31.6m
4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes $28.7m
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes $23m
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes $17.2m
7. Felipe Massa Williams $5.7m
= Nico Hulkenberg Force India F1 $5.7m
9. Romain Grosjean Lotus F1 Team $4.3m
= Pastor Maldonado Lotus F1 Team $4.3m
= Sergio Perez Force India F1 $4.3m
12. Adrian Sutil Sauber $2.9m
13. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes $1.4m
= Valtteri Bottas Williams $1.4m
15. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing $1.1m
= Jean-Eric Vergne Scuderia Toro Rosso $1.1m
17. Jules Bianchi Marussia $718,000
18. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber $574,300
19. Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso $358,900
20. Max Chilton Marussia $287,100
21. Marcus Ericsson Caterham F1 $215,300
= Kamui Kobayshi Caterham F1 $215,300

What the F1 teams spent on drivers in 2014:
1. Ferrari $63.2m
2. Mercedes $45.9m
3. Red Bull Racing $32.7m
4. McLaren-Mercedes $24.4m
5. Force India $10m
6. Lotus F1 team $8.6m
7. Williams $7.2
8. Sauber $3.4m
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso $1.4m
10. Marussia $1m
11. Caterham $430,600