Max Verstappen’s repeated claims about not thinking of leaving Red Bull don’t seem to have any effect on the rumor mill, with Aston Martin being one of the latest teams to enter the foray. But the reported deal surrounding his potential move to the Silverstone-based team is so staggering that even journalists are finding it strange and hard to believe.
The Daily Mail, a UK-based publication, labeled this as a done deal in recent weeks, with the reported amount of the new contract said to be over £1 billion ($1.2 billion). Samuel Coop of Racing News 365, however, did not sound too keen on believing this news.
“Essentially [the Daily Mail] has quite outlandishly claimed that a close ally of Lawrence Stroll, Jefferson Slack, has been using Max Verstappen as a bit of a bait to court new investments and sponsorships,” Coop said on their podcast.
EXCLUSIVE: Aston Martin trying to recruit Max Verstappen in £1BILLION deal pic.twitter.com/Ojw7oAQWaM
— Erica (@f1twts) January 16, 2025
According to these rumors, Verstappen is set to move to Aston Martin in 2026. However, Coop pointed out that Aston Martin has “categorically denied it”. The team extended Fernando Alonso’s contract by two years last season, ensuring he remains with them until then. With that in mind, there’s little chance of Alonso leaving before his contract expires.
So why are rumors of Verstappen joining Aston Martin taking up the headlines? Perhaps as a way to lure sponsors in, because there simply isn’t a better driver — performance-wise — than him at the moment.
Verstappen signed a new deal with Red Bull in 2022, keeping him at the Milton Keynes-based team until the 2028 season. Currently, his reported salary is $60 million, with an additional $15 million in bonuses.
Aston Martin has been rumored to offer him a five-year contract, reportedly worth around $250 million annually. However, such a figure would represent an unrealistic jump in salary. “A four-fold increase in his salary, you’re talking silly numbers!”, opined Coop.
Would teams pay that much for Verstappen?
Paying a driver a billion dollars over a five-year period would make them the highest-paid athlete in history. Is Verstappen worth that? Some experts and team bosses in the paddock certainly believe so.
The classic case in point is Toto Wolff, who for most of the 2024 season, did little to hide his intentions of signing Verstappen as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes. He also admitted that any Team Principal would do ‘handstands’ to lure him over. A ten-figure income isn’t quite the same, but it was implicit what Wolff meant.
Mario Andretti — who will head Cadillac’s F1 adventure from 2026 onwards — also publicly stated that he would give up his ‘right hand’ to get Verstappen’s signature.
From a financial point of view, getting Verstappen on such an amount could be an unfathomable thought. But with how F1 is growing, the revenue and valuations of teams too, will surely go up. So maybe not in the immediate future, but sometime down the line, there could be a billion-dollar driver in F1. Perhaps even Verstappen?
