Rookie Hamilton may earn $1 billion

These days everyone talks about the huge amounts of money there is in football and bemoans the size of the weekly pay-packets which go to the leading players. However, if you really want to hit the financial jackpot, stick to sports where you compete as an individual.

That is exactly what Lewis Hamilton has done and, if he can maintain his meteoric start to his Formula One career – collecting a number of world titles on the way – his career earnings could top the $1billion mark.

Hamilton's sport, motor racing, along with boxing, golf and tennis, is one of the richest and most globally watched sports and, as such, produces some of the world's richest stars.

Hamilton's success in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday was the latest step on an incredible career which, in just six months, has seen him secure an F1 drive with McLaren, prove he can cope with the pressure and produce six podium finishes out of six races, including Sunday's maiden victory in F1.

The only piece from the jigsaw still required is the drivers' championship and he is well on his way to securing that as well.

If Hamilton's rise to fame on the track has been meteoric, his earnings potential is on a similarly steep upward rise. It is not an exaggeration to say that if he continues this season as he has started and wins the world championship, he will put himself in pole position to become the UK's richest ever sport star. More at telegraph.co.uk