A drive system embodied as belt drives of a self-propelled combine harvester includes, on one machine side of the combine harvester, a main drive pulley. The main drive pulley is driven by an internal combustion engine. Proceeding from the main drive pulley, a device for separating out residual grain and a straw chopper are driven via a first intermediate drive stage. A functionally reliable drive of the device for separating out residual grain, the straw chopper and powerful front harvesting attachments and a high power density combined with limited installation space is ensured by use of the drive system.