The Alonsos, Vettels, and Hamiltons of the world also enjoy hefty bonuses from their teams for scoring race wins, pole positions, fastest laps, and winning world championships. And although these bonuses and salaries are kept under wraps, it's rumored that Lewis Hamilton's salary is over $41 million per year, and sources with ties to Sebastian Vettel claim that the German's bonus for delivering the fastest lap of the race was approximately $25,000 during his time at Red Bull and $500,000 for winning a Grand Prix.

Unlike drivers in other racing series, F1 drivers have very simple income models. All drivers earn a salary from the team, even those who pay to drive, and they're also allowed to pursue personal endorsements with other companies, although a percentage of these earnings must be shared with the team. F1 drivers do not receive purse money from racing venues or from Formula 1 itself.

Other considerable streams of cash for F1 teams come in the form of services rendered and licensing. Let's use Ferrari as an example: The Italian team not only applies its logo to teddy bears, carbon fiber cigar humidors, and a wide variety of souvenirs, but it also sells engines and technical support to other teams, such as Sauber and HaasF1. Mercedes-AMG Petronas, Sahara Force India, and Williams F1 are engaged in similar, profitable partnerships.

The third revenue stream for F1 teams comes from the drivers themselves. How? Aspiring racers need one of two things to get behind the wheel of an F1 car: cash or cash-rich sponsors. Talent is a distant third, maybe fourth (cough Pastor cough Maldonado). Young racers from wealthy families can offer millions of dollars to support the team for the duration of the season, while others can use their sponsorship money to basically do the same. In the end, paid or sponsored drivers represent serious income for racing teams.

The second revenue stream is the most important for the smaller F1 teams, who don't bring in as much cash from sponsors as the big boys: Formula One Group (FOG) money. At the end of every year, the FOG ends up with a billionaire's sum from the year's business dealings. This lockbox is then doled out to the teams according to the terms of the last Concorde Agreement, a document signed by every F1 team in 2013. As of 2017, each team is awarded $36 million for simply living to see another day. However, new teams won't receive this bonus until their third consecutive season. Teams also receive bonuses for winning the constructors' championship, and for other competitive measures. Ferrari is the only team to receive an "LST" bonus, which stands for Long Standing Team, of $68 million for being with F1 since the get-go.

For F1 teams, revenue begins with one word: sponsorships. Without sponsors paying big bucks to apply their decals to the race cars, teams wouldn't have enough money to show up at the tracks. On average, sponsorship contracts are negotiated for a minimum of two years and a maximum of five, although most hover around the three-year mark. This allows teams to focus on getting the job done with relative peace of mind that the funds will be there next season—or next week. However, an organization like Ferrari can command five- and ten-year contracts from companies like UPS, Ray-Ban, and its most important sponsor of all, Phillip Morris International, whose Marlboro brand pays over $150 million dollars per year to be squeezed into the team's formal name: Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.

F1 teams are lean, mean, cash-making machines, regardless of whether they're at the top or the bottom of the points standings. Sure, the smaller guys may have a harder road to travel, but that doesn't mean they're broke. A "small" team like Sauber outspends a top IndyCar team many times over, and the cash they bring in from wealthy aspiring racers or heavily sponsored future stars is measured in the tens of millions of Euros.

F1's third-biggest revenue stream is a combination of ticket sales and other paid partnerships with companies or products. On top of the already hefty sanction fee, venues must pony up a percentage of the ticket sales to the racing organization, although this is typically accounted for in the initial contract. Newer venues with higher fees typically pay less in admissions revenue, and established tracks with lower-than-average fees pay more from admissions.

F1's second-biggest revenue stream is made up what is called "race-sanctioning fees." Every F1 venue in the world—from a classic like Monaco to a newbie like Baku—has to pay a massive fee to F1 to be added to the calendar. Per Bernie Ecclestone, the former F1 supremo, all contracts have built-in confidentiality clauses that keep promoters from publicizing the fees and terms. However, SEC filings show that F1 made $654 million in sanctioning fees for the 2016 season, which featured 21 races. This means that the average fee F1 charges is roughly $31 million. It's public knowledge that Monaco pays considerably less than that—most likely because, arguably, F1 needs Monaco more than Monaco needs F1.

F1's biggest revenue stream comes from the sale of television rights, which in the United States alone was worth $4 million a season in 2017. Globally, television contracts added a staggering $587 million to Liberty Media's 2017 balance sheet . Unlike most sports or racing series, Formula 1 handles all TV logistics at all of the venues and provide what's called a "global feed" to hundreds of TV networks—each of whom pay a hefty price of admission. These networks add their own commentary and onscreen graphics, which is why the on-air team at ESPN can sometimes seem a little, well, lost.

The following is a breakdown of how Formula 1 as a sanctioning body makes its money, how F1 teams make their money, and lastly, how F1 drivers earn a living.

The oldest and most prestigious championship in the world has a neatly organized revenue system, but its inner workings are a rat's nest of politics and 50-year-old handshake deals that flirt with cronyism. The "Formula One Group" as a business enterprise is currently owned by Liberty Media, and is listed on the NASDAQ as FWONK.

After talking to a dozen sources on this subject matter—many of whom preferred to remain anonymous—only one thing was evident: nothing is what it seems, and everything (and everyone) in motorsports has a price.

The business of racing is unique in another major way: most of the big-money deals are based on tight-knit connections, and performed behind the scenes. After the Great Recession of 2008, sponsorship dollars became extra hard to grab, and made the recipients of this sparse cash all the more secretive.

For example, organizations like Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing are much more marketable than Hendrick Motorsports , which, despite being perennial a NASCAR frontrunner, doesn't have the same marketability as Roger and Chip, who both have teams in multiple series. Another team that's highly successful in this area is Andretti Autosport, whose sponsors can be found on its IndyCar, Rallycross, Indy Lights, and Formula E racers.

In order to pay the bills, racing teams and their respective drivers need multiple sources of revenue, and these will vary depending on popularity, rank, and driver marketability. These streams of revenue begin with sponsors, and include drivers (more on this later), purse monies, services rendered, such engine building and supporting customer teams (this applies mainly to Formula 1), and lastly, merchandise revenue.

Racing is a performance business. Only the best, the fastest, and the smartest can survive for long. The historical, decades-long losses sustained by, say, the Cleveland Browns, would never fly in motorsports. Whether open-wheel or stock cars, the basic rules of capitalism are applied with neither mercy nor sentiment: a team with top-10 overhead can't finish outside the top 10 and expect prime sponsors and drivers to stick around. The flashy decals will stop arriving and the talent will jump ship. And once that happens, it's game over.

The variables behind how teams, drivers, and sanctioning bodies like IndyCar, NASCAR, and F1 make their money aren't only wildly complex, but they can also change frequently, depending on evolving business needs, market conditions, and any number of other factors. Plus, the principals are deeply secretive, with most members of the racing fraternity unwilling to discuss contracts, salaries, or sponsorship deals.

If you want to make a small fortune in auto racing, start with a huge fortune. That old saying is more relevant than ever. The finances behind high-stakes, competitive motorsports are ruthless —even more so than in any other mainstream sport.

2. IndyCar

GETTY Verizon's sponsorship of the IndyCar series expires this year.

IndyCar is owned by Hulman & Company, which also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS Productions, and the Indiana-based baking-goods brand Clabber Girl. The Hulman empire is led by its President and CEO Mark Miles, who also bears the title of IndyCar CEO. To a certain extent, America's premier open-wheel racing series functions like Formula 1, but the fact that IndyCar has part-time drivers and even part-time teams makes things a bit more complicated. In addition, the crown jewel of the IndyCar championship is the Indianapolis 500, which has its own cash and points payout, plus its own driver and sponsorship contracts. It's basically a championship within a championship that in many ways eclipses the series itself. The biggest differentiator between IndyCar and Formula 1 is that drivers and teams collect purse money directly from IndyCar. This is great for the teams' bottom lines, but it also makes for confusing driver contracts that award sliding percentages of purse money to the drivers based on race performance. How does IndyCar make its money? Much like Formula 1, IndyCar charges a sanctioning fee to racing venues for hosting races. These, like many other details about the inner workings of the series, are secret, but the recent Laguna Seca deal for 2019 revealed that this amount was between $1 and $1.5 million per year for three years. It's unknown whether the Laguna Seca deal includes a percentage of ticket sales and other on-track revenues.

GETTY Road America is one of IndyCar's recent additions to the schedule.

Another two major streams of cash for the series are hefty TV rights contracts and headlining sponsors. The former was just reestablished at the beginning of the year when IndyCar announced a new three-year broadcasting contract with NBC starting in 2019, while the latter is already in the early stages of negotiations with a new (unknown) partner to replace Verizon, whose contract expires at the end of this season. According to Sports Business Journal, the Verizon deal is worth approximately $10 million per year. Official sources with knowledge of the NBC TV deal's worth declined to comment. How do IndyCar teams make their money? You guessed it: Sponsors. However, the first few pennies a racing team earns every year comes from something called the "Leaders Circle" program, which is IndyCar's way of rewarding teams for their full-time participation in the sport. This amount has fluctuated over the years, but as of 2018, it stands at approximately $900,000 for every car (that's car, not team) that's entered for all of the season's races and attends all of the mandatory test sessions. This sum is paid in a per-race basis throughout the season. Directly from the IndyCar rulebook: "The program whereby INDYCAR provides benefits to Leaders Circle participants in exchange for their participation in all of the Races. Leaders Circle participants must enter into an agreement with INDYCAR, remain in good standing and be uniquely identified by a tax identification number, car number, and driver. Leaders Circle designations may not be transferred, and/or otherwise assigned without prior written permission by INDYCAR. INDYCAR may limit the number of Leaders Circle participants as it deems appropriate."

GETTY Even with recent struggles, CGR is one of the best-funded teams in the paddock.

The Leaders Circle amount can vary from year to year at IndyCar's discretion. The Leaders Circle Program "stimulus" was an estimated $1.25 million in 2015, but it dipped to $900,000 for the 2016 and 2017 racing seasons. A request to learn about the inner workings of the Leaders Circle Program's purse and how it's distributed in 2018 was declined by IndyCar. When it comes to sponsors, there are teams who have them all like Andretti Autosport and Team Penske, and there are others who hardly have any, like newbies Harding and Juncos. Also, there are top teams like Chip Ganassi Racing who used to have it all (back in the Target days), but their current state reflects how hard it can be to sign multi-year, multi-million-dollar sponsorships nowadays. Their current deal with PNC Bank appears to be bringing decent cash, but sources close to the team claim that everyone at CGR, including Scott Dixon, earns less money today than they did five and 10 years ago. Paid drivers are another important source of income for some IndyCar teams. In fact, in the case of Dale Coyne Racing and others on that level, it's the only source of income. Extensive conversations with the likes of former professional racing driver Alex Lloyd and half a dozen other active drivers have proven that some teams simply don't care to mine sponsorship opportunities on their own. "Teams don't really actively look for sponsors because they've grown so used drivers coming in with a ton of personal money or a ton of sponsors," said a former IndyCar racer who now races at a different open-wheel series. Teams also benefit from other odd and somewhat obscure monies. Such is the case of the new universal aero kit that's mandatory for the 2018 racing season, which costs upwards of $90,000 per kit. In January of this year, the State of Indiana Economic Development Commission agreed to buy two aero kits per car for each 2018 Leaders Circle entrant. This wasn't only a great deal for the kit's manufacturer, Dallara, but also to the teams who saved about $180,000 per car. If you're Andretti Autosport, that's roughly $720,000 in savings. How do IndyCar drivers make their money?

GETTY From L to R: Conor Daly, Alexander Rossi, Jack Harvey.

"What money?" would be what approximately 30 percent of the grid would say when asked that question. Reporting reveals that top drivers on top teams can make a decent living (although they're still severely underpaid compared to other athletes), that some drivers earn an "ok" six-figure salary thanks to sponsors, and that about 30 percent of the field doesn't make a dime—they're simply hoping for a breakthrough. Most shockingly, there are still others who have gone into debt in order to buy a seat, hoping that any prize money or sponsorship money they earn during the year will repay the loan. This is a glimpse into the top open-wheel racing series in the United States. Sponsorship and team salaries aside (if any), this is what drivers could receive from IndyCar each race should they finish in the top 12. $30,000 first place

$20,000 second

$15,000 third

$11,000 fourth

$10,000 fifth

$9,000 sixth

$8,000 seventh

$6,000 eighth

$5,000 ninth

$4,000 10th

$3,000 11th

$2,000 12th Think that's not so bad? Think again. Not only are these anemic numbers considerably smaller than what Champ Car and CART drivers used to make in the 1990s, but what most people don't know is that drivers' contracts state that anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of the prize money goes to the team—without exception. These clauses typically feature sliding percentages, in which a driver who finishes 15th and below might keep 30 percent of the prize money, 10th to 15th place keeps 35 percent, the top nine 40 percent, top five 45 percent, and a winning driver gets to keep half of the prize money. So let's build a hypothetical season for a hypothetical driver with that specific prize money breakdown. If said driver were to win half of the races in the 2018 season (not counting the Indy 500)—and that would be quite the feat—he would only net $120,000 in prize money at the end of the year. Because drivers are considered self-employed and these monies would be earned in several states and under different tax laws, it's safe to assume that our driver would have a tax burden of around 35 percent, which means that if no other income is earned that year, our hypothetical all-star driver would've risked his life at 230 miles per hour for an entire year in exchange for roughly $85,800, after taxes. However, our made-up driver would earn even less if he opted for the minimum life and health insurance plans offered to high-risk athletes. "Drivers all have to be self-insured," an active IndyCar driver told me. "Nothing is offered from the series. Justin Wilson didn’t have life insurance when he was killed." This is why drivers with decent reputations must spend their entire racing season selling car, suit, and helmet advertising space. If they don't win half the season's races, and they don't race for a team who pays them a decent salary, and they don't have hefty sponsors—they couldn't afford to rent a decent apartment in suburban Indiana.

GETTY Scott Dixon is rumored to be the highest-paid IndyCar driver, earning around $2-3 million per year.

"At the Las Vegas race when [Dan] Wheldon got killed, that was my last IndyCar race, that year I was probably earning the same or less than one of the team mechanics, but I was paying the additional costs of being a driver," said Alex Lloyd, four-time Indy 500 contestant with Chip Ganassi, Rahal Letterman, Sam Schmidt and Dale Coyne. "And I did buy some insurance that year, so I could at least cover myself against hospital bills or anything like that. "But when you're in that situation, it's tough. I remember my wife trying to find us a bloody cheap sandwich to eat for lunch at the race, but we couldn't find a $5 Subway footlong anywhere and we couldn't pay $20 for a meal at the track or anywhere nearby," he added. "I kept on saying 'Screw it, we'll keep looking.' That year I was racing IndyCar, and I had finished fourth at the Indy 500 the year before, yet here I am trying to make ends meet with a family and things like that, earning nowhere near enough to survive." The Indy 500 The most famous race in the world borrows IndyCar's somewhat complicated economics system and takes it to a new level. Teams still make money from sponsors, paid drivers, and their share of the prize money, but the drivers have to navigate a somewhat laughable maze of contracts and clauses.

GETTY The start of the 2018 Indy 500.