The 2023 Qatar GP turned out to be yet another walk in the park for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. He won the race comfortably, having already sealed his title win in the sprint on Saturday. By doing so, Verstappen will also cash out big, earning $25,000,000 on top of his base salary, as reported by Autoblog.
When the season started, Verstappen faced a little bit of resistance from teammate Sergio Perez. However, as the year progressed, the gap between him and Perez kept getting bigger and bigger. It came to a point where Verstappen’s points tally on its own, was enough to seal the constructors’ title for Red Bull.
Champions 🙌
Winning the race is the perfect way to end an amazing weekend @redbullracing 👏 Thank you all for the tremendous support and messages 🙏#QatarGP pic.twitter.com/USAHWye9L9
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) October 8, 2023
Of course, any driver would be ecstatic to win a world championship, let alone three. Verstappen was happy with his championship win, but one thing that will add to his happiness is a $25,000,000 bonus.
Max Verstappen set to receive huge bonus after title win
Last year, Verstappen signed a contract with Red Bull that made him the highest-paid F1 driver. His base salary was reported to be $50,000,000, but it was the bonuses that really caught everyone’s attention. Multiple sources including Autoblog reported that Verstappen would get $25,000,000 extra if he won the championship.
Surely enough, Verstappen won this year’s title with five races to spare. Hence, his total earnings at the end of this season will likely be around $75,000,000. Additionally, Verstappen’s future looks bright, because Red Bull is showing no signs of slowing down.
So, with a contract that is valid until 2028, Verstappen is expected to win many more titles. As a result, he should also be getting the $25,000,000 bonus every season, unless someone else breaks Red Bull’s dominance.
Who can break Red Bull’s dominance?
Red Bull has been the most dominant team in F1 since the start of the 2022 season. This year, only one team defeated them in a race, and that was Ferrari, spearheaded by Carlos Sainz in Singapore. In the coming few months, all the teams will be working hard to make sure that they can topple the Austrian team next season.
This team delivers AGAIN! 💪🧡#QatarGP 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/KhLoRuzyVT
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 8, 2023
However, the possibility seems bleak. This is mainly because there won’t really be many changes to the regulations, something that Red Bull mastered when the current changes took effect in 2022. The next widespread changes to be brought to the sport will be in 2026.
Then, most teams who are struggling behind Red Bull at the moment, will be hoping to take their chances, and topple them.
