Lewis Hamilton has been named motorsport’s most marketable athlete for 2024 in SportsPro’s annual list of the world’s 50 Most Marketable (50MM) athletes.
This is the 12th time that Formula One’s most successful driver has topped the rankings for motorsport athletes, having appeared in all but one of the 15 annual editions of 50MM.
The Briton is ranked 11th overall, falling from seventh in 2023, which is the first time he has fallen out of the top ten since 2021.
Hamilton, who will join up with the iconic Ferrari Formula One team in 2025, has agreed two major brand deals this year with LVMH Group subsidiary Dior and online trading provider CFI.
Elsewhere, Max Verstappen is ranked second of all motorsport athletes. The Dutchman is 31st overall, but has a particular strength with companies linked to his home country (Heineken and Viaplay) or personal interests (EA Sports).
Charles Leclerc rounds out the top three, coming in at 33rd overall. The Monegasque driver has shown a particular aptitude for endorsement deals in recent months, agreeing partnerships with Puma, Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, and Bang & Olufsen.
The McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also make this year’s 50MM ranking in 37th and 46th, respectively. The five motorsport athletes included in the 2024 list equals the record from 2022, emphasising the upward trajectory of motorsport right now.
In the wider list of 150 athletes, there are further six motorsport competitors that just miss out, including Carlos Sainz (58th) and George Russell (63rd).
Just behind these more established contemporaries is F1 Academy’s Bianca Bustamante in 64th, highlighting the impact of the all-female series’ platform. Bustamante is the most-followed junior driver on the European single-seater ladder.
Other motorsport athletes to make the extended list are stock car racing driver Toni Breidinger (91st), Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman (101st) and MotoGP star Marc Marquez (117th).
There are no other motorsport series represented in the rankings, meaning the likes of Nascar, IndyCar and Formula E miss out.
The rankings are calculated through three key scoring pillars: Brand Strength, Total Addressable Market, and Economics. The 2024 ranking, produced in partnership with NorthStar Solutions Group, features an enhanced methodology and multi-faceted evaluation model to deliver the most comprehensive assessment of athlete marketability to date.
First, the entire sports ecosystem was mapped out and narrowed down to 174 sports categories, out of which a total universe of 1,006 athletes was derived for further analysis (compared to a list of 993 athletes in 2023).
In order to be considered eligible for this year’s list, an athlete must have been active during the evaluation period 1st September 2023 to 1st September 2024. The data was then whittled down to the final list to 150 global athletes that were active during the evaluation period.
