Thanks to Max Verstappen, the Red Bull team last year put an end to Mercedes' dominance of the Formula 1 World Championship that began in 2014. The Austrian outfit is ready to splurge financially to keep its Dutch nugget, crowned for the third time this weekend, for a very long time. In March 2022, the bull team extended its driver for a further five years while his contract was initially due to end at the end of the current season.
To discover
- Formula 1: drivers' standings
- Formula 1: the calendar of the season
Read alsoFormula 1: Is Max Verstappen already the greatest driver of all time?
A much higher salary than Lewis Hamilton
According to several sources, the deal until 2028 would be for a salary of just over €52 million per season. Emoluments that make the Batavian the highest-paid driver on the grid, far ahead of Lewis Hamilton (38) who, despite his seven crowns and his record of victories (103), has to "settle" for 33 million euros with Mercedes. The podium was completed by Charles Leclerc, who received €23 million at Ferrari.
If Red Bull agrees to break the bank by paying its champion five times more than his teammate Sergio Perez (the Mexican earns just under ten million euros), it is also because Verstappen is an alien in terms of precocity. The native of Hasselt, Belgium, was the youngest rider to win a grand prix (aged 18 years, 7 months and 15 days) in 2016 in Barcelona. At 26 years old, he still has many years left to assert his reign over F1, even if he is not very enthusiastic about the evolution of the discipline. The expansion of the championship to twenty-four races and the multiplication of sprint events on Saturday is not to the liking of "Mad Max" who has hinted that he could get bored quickly and consider other challenges if this trend continues.
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Hamilton ahead of Verstappen in sponsorship
With a high estimate (€57 million per season), Forbes places Verstappen 22nd in the hierarchy of the world's highest-paid athletes, but just behind... Lewis Hamilton. Because the American magazine takes sponsorship contracts into account in its calculation and the Briton is, in this area, still a clear notch ahead of his successor in the list of winners at the World Championship. Bose, Electronic Arts, Monster Energy, Police, Puma and Tommy Hilfiger are trading the image of the seven-time world champion for around €10 million, while Verstappen would receive just under €<> million thanks to Electronic Arts and Heineken. The Dutchman is not yet a magnet for the mark as the Briton can be, but time and results are in favour of a reversal of roles.