Webber overtaken as highest earning Australian

Mark Webber has been overtaken as Australia’s highest-earning sportsman.

Business Review Weekly’s annual analysis of the country’s rich and powerful found that the Red Bull driver made $9 million this year.

But that was reportedly half a million short of Honda’s 2011 MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, the 26-year-old who - like 35-year-old Webber - is from New South Wales.

However, both Webber and Stoner have been left in the wheel tracks of Andrew Bogut, whose new Milwaukee Bucks contract saw him collect a cool $13.5 million by playing NBA basketball.

Motocross rider Chad Reed, meanwhile, reportedly made $8.5m, followed by Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, with $5m in 2011.

But for the country’s new F1 star Daniel Ricciardo, the road ahead to high earnings is long, as the online WA Today newspaper expects the 22-year-old to make less than $200,000 racing with Toro Rosso next season.

And until this week, he wasn’t sure he would even have that job.

"I can honestly say that I didn’t know it (the announcement) was coming and it had been playing on my mind a fair bit," said Ricciardo.

"It was a fair bit of a relief actually," he added.