Malthe Jakobsen, Digi Mart USA News: Sporting progress is expected for Malthe Jakobsen, but McLaren’s new Danish driver also occupies a unique financial position. Unlike many prominent Danish drivers, including Kevin Magnussen, Christian Lundgaard and Frederik Vesti, who owed millions to investors who helped them early in their careers, Jakobsen says he has no such debts.
“None at all,” Jakobsen said with a broad smile. “I owed my parents one million kroner, which they had privately spent on racing from 2016 to 2019.
I paid it back in my first year at Peugeot.”
The situation is unusual in a sport that keeps getting more expensive. Even karting now requires million-kroner budgets at the elite level.
Jakobsen said he had discussed the issue with other Danish drivers, who said they wished they had been in the same situation so early.
He added that people who helped early on remain part of the reason a driver got as far as they did. “That’s something you must not forget,” he said.
Jakobsen said he had been fortunate to have a strong local network in Thy, Denmark, with a team of sponsors who covered most of his costs. His father runs a small building business with two employees, and his parents contributed what they could.
Jakobsen’s new contract with McLaren Racing is markedly smaller than the pay of the team’s Formula 1 and IndyCar drivers, but he said he has no complaints. “It’s quite a step up.
I’d say it’s like going from apprentice to journeyman,” he said of his move from Peugeot to McLaren.
He said he also tends to be frugal and has been good at setting money aside along the way. He does not expect the move to change his daily life, but hopes it will create opportunities later in life by allowing him to earn well now.
“As a racing driver, it can end very quickly,” he said.
Although Jakobsen ranks well down the list of Denmark’s best-paid sports stars, he believes he has the opportunity to secure his pension while he is still active. He said that might require rethinking some habits, especially if he moves back to Thy, but he enjoys the work and will not need to worry about other matters once he finishes racing.
Like all racing drivers, Jakobsen also works with personal sponsors. He said they remain on the sidelines, but he finds the work exciting because he is used to working hard.
He held a full-time job until December 2024 while at Peugeot, after completing an industrial technician apprenticeship. He then moved to Austria, where he lived for about a year and a half, before relocating to Monaco in May.
Pay levels in sports car racing are far below football and Formula 1. Many professional hypercar drivers earn as little as just under one million kroner a year.
Better-paid drivers earn around three million kroner, while only well-known names or former F1 drivers such as Kevin Magnussen reach or exceed five million. Personal sponsorships depend on the driver, and about one million kroner a year is realistic for lesser-known Danish drivers.
