Hamilton Loses 'Most Marketable Athlete' Crown as Leclerc Surges Ahead

Lewis Hamilton is no longer the most marketable athlete in sport — nor even the most marketable driver in Formula 1. SportsPro's 2026 rankings drop him to 22nd, with Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc climbing to ninth.

Why it matters:

Hamilton topped the 2025 list with a score of 96.03. His 66.63 now puts him level with footballers Neymar and Vinicius Junior. It is a striking shift for the driver long treated as F1's commercial benchmark — and a signal that the market is pricing in the years ahead rather than the ones behind.

The details:

• Leclerc ranks ninth on 71.12, up from 25th a year ago, and places second of all 247 athletes assessed on brand equity.
• Max Verstappen rises to 48th on 60.45, with George Russell (55th) and Oscar Piastri (56th) close behind.
• Lando Norris, the 2025 champion, falls to 78th — behind McLaren team-mate Piastri — while newly crowned champion Kimi Antonelli sits 126th, a 48-place drop.
• Aryna Sabalenka leads the overall list. Motorsport holds eight places, sixth among sports, behind tennis and cricket.

Between the lines:

The score blends brand equity, momentum and commercial trajectory. Leclerc wins on brand equity and trajectory, but Hamilton still leads comfortably on momentum. As NorthStar's Chris Collins put it, "what keeps him below the top 10 isn't his brand, it's time" — at 41, Hamilton is the joint-oldest athlete on the list alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James.

What's next:

Leclerc's trajectory figure points to commercial headroom he has yet to convert, and with two Ferrari drivers directly comparable, the intra-team contest now stretches well beyond the cockpit.