Five-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton is said to be earning over £40,000 per Instagram post, according to new research into online 'influencer' power.

Already one of the world's highest paid athletes - with a base contract said to be worth almost £800,000-a-week with employers Mercedes - the Stevenage-born driver certainly appears to have found a nice alternative to his day job.

The research in question - conducted by Celebrity Spend Comparison - suggests that online 'influencers' can charge an average of £1,667 per-500,000 online followers, meaning that Hamilton is making a cool £40,590 per post from his 12.4 million following.  

The number is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Hamilton averages between three and four posts on his account per-week - raking in a potential £162,360.

Compared to his rivals in the paddock, Hamilton's Instagram following is very impressive, with Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas possessing 1.1 million (or £3,630 per post) - whilst the ever-improving Red Bull rival Max Verstappen has amassed over 2.4 million (£8,000 per post).

Whilst his numbers may dwarf those of his F1 rivals, they pale in comparison to those of some of world sport's other heavy-hitters. 

Football's Cristiano Ronaldo remains one of the most followed people on the planet, with a near-unbelievable 179 million fans on his personal Instagram page, and a further 79 million on his Twitter page. 

Using the same estimate that has been used for Hamilton above, this would mean the Portuguese superstar can charge an average of £596,786 per-post - or £62 million-a-year, based on an average of two posts per-week. 

Some other notable mentions from sport are Ronaldo's two great rivals Neymar and Lionel Messi, who earn an average of £373,408 per-post each, whilst basketball's LeBron James can demand £160,032.