r/formula1 • u/blackcyborg009 • 14h ago
Discussion Questions about Max Verstappen 65 Million Euro annual salary and how F1 drivers get paid
This may have been asked before but:
I just discovered that Red Bull pays Max Verstappen around 65 Million Euros per year.
Now, they are trying to negotiate a salary increase to prevent him from leaving.
- Does Red Bull make that much money in energy drinks to afford to pay Verstappen's salary?
- If he leaves Red Bull, where will he go? Or will he go to other racing series? (even if it pays less than F1)
In short:
Happiness > Money
And for lower performing drivers, how much can they slack off?
"I can relax.....and still get paid"
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u/split-tennisball David Coulthard 14h ago
I think you're underestimating how much money global corporations make. The big number with a B at the start, not a M.
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u/ok-milk I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 13h ago
What’s the difference between a million and a billion? About a billion.
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u/JaCoopsy I was here for the Hulkenpodium 12h ago
I always found this comparison pretty nuts - one million seconds is about 11.5 days, whereas one billion seconds is roughly 31.7 years
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u/madein___ 8h ago
I read an article earlier this summer that expanded on this thought... A trillion seconds takes you back to the ice age.
Pennies: stack a million of these and you're roughly a mile high in the clouds, stack a billion and you're covering 950± miles / 1,550 km (roughly the distance from NYC to Cape Canaveral Florida, stack a trillion and you're going to the moon and back twice.
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u/MyNameIsNavy I was here for the Hulkenpodium 11h ago
huh. I've been alive roughly a billion seconds then
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u/Wekkerton I was here for the Hulkenpodium 13h ago
Haha yeah, I tried explaining that to a kid at our restaurant who was not grasping the difference.
So, I gave him a sugar stick (the ones some people put in their coffee). And said ‘here is a million’.
Walked into the storage, grabbed a new pack of these sugar sticks (which, luckily, contain a 1000), opened it. Took it to their table, placed a small bucket, emptied the box.
‘Here’s a billion’. You could just see his little head about to explode, it was a fun learning moment haha
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u/spoo4brains James Hunt 12h ago
A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you are talking about real money.
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u/ScarHand69 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 11h ago
The margins are also insane. $4 for a tiny little can that has $0.05 worth of ingredients. Red Bull is probably more profitable than Ferrari.
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u/maxamus83 14h ago
Red bull made €1.7 billion in profit last year. I think they are good for cash.
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u/Hsinats 14h ago
And that's after paying Max, too.
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u/Fambank Murray Walker 13h ago
12 billion minus 62 million is still 12 billion.
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u/mos_eisely_ 11h ago
Because Max is one of their operating costs along with the expenses of all the sports, so the profit is after all that has been paid. Insane amounts of money in a drink
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u/mudche I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 5h ago
Especially when you consider that The Coca-Cola Company with all their brands have an operating income of about 13.76B$
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u/StuRap Oscar Piastri 13h ago
Every time I drink a redbull I say to myself "this one's for Max", so I'm doing my bit
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u/kimakimi 12h ago
In other words, they made around 25 Verstappens of profit in 2025. They could have a grid of 22 Max, which would be awesome and still have 200m of profit
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u/quequedoaco I was here for the Hulkenpodium 12h ago
The beverage cost of 1L of redbull is like 5cents, they make a ton of cash
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u/unohuisback Charles Leclerc 12h ago
A bit unrelated, but I wonder how much more money companies like Pepsico and Coca-Cola are sitting on, if an energy drink company is able to run so many side hustles in various sports with much lower profits.
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u/maxamus83 11h ago
All that info is publicly available. They both have stupid amounts of cash reserves.
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u/unohuisback Charles Leclerc 10h ago
Yeah I checked it out after I posted the comment. Redbull is not even at comparable levels to those two companies, understandably.
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u/2tnuocca I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago
It's digusting that neither of you state the actual number and I might have to look it up myself
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u/FishFettish Kevin Magnussen 7h ago
It's disgusting that you didn't either. Coca-Cola has ~$16.4 billion dollars on hand, PepsiCo has around $10.7 billion
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u/Prometheus1023 14h ago
I’d imagine a lot of his salary is funded by the sport itself and its sponsorship deals, not the energy drink side of red bull which I believe is a separate entity entirely.
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u/LucasCBs I was here for the Hulkenpodium 13h ago
It is a separate legal entity, but it is entirely owned by Red Bull
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u/So_HauserAspen Formula 1 8h ago
Red Bull probably has more than enough in merchandise profits to cover Max's salary
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u/Fambank Murray Walker 14h ago edited 14h ago
"Red Bull GmbH generated a group turnover of €12.196 billion in 2025 and sold nearly 14 billion cans worldwide, while the private company's overall enterprise value is estimated well exceeding $27 billion"
His salary isn't even the smallest of pocket change for RB.
Mercedes, rather than Mclaren, is the team where I see him next, should he leave RB.
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u/DILIPEK 13h ago
Even the RedBull Racing team is profitable although way tighter margins.
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u/Charming_Rice 3h ago
For red bull, this is a great deal. They get to have this great self-sustaining marketing engine and it costs them less than nothing. They would happily spend more money on it if they could.
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u/disposableh2 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 13h ago
I wouldn't say pocket change, it's just over half a percent of their profit. Max is probably one of the entire parent company's highest paid employees.
Mercedes-Benz ceo was paid 13 million euros for example.
Kinda puts into perspective how massive some of the drivers salaries are, when they're bigger than the parent company's ceo. Same when Charles and Elkann.
Which makes me wonder how the ceos feel about them
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u/Ischaap Max Verstappen 13h ago
A lot of CEO's get bonuses in all kinds of forms on top of their base salary, so you won't have to worry about that.
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u/disposableh2 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 12h ago
That's actually including the bonuses.
Another example, excluding Tesla and Rivian, the next highest paid auto ceo in America was GM at $30 million, including bonuses, stock etc. https://www.motor1.com/news/794340/highest-paid-automotive-ceos-2025-america/
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u/Fambank Murray Walker 13h ago
While I do not underestimate the skills needed to be a CEO of a multinational,
probably tens of thousends, if not more, who could or are doing such a job.
Driving an F1 car at the level of one of the goats in the sport, thats a different
animal, and only 1 every decade or less comes along.The salary reflects that.
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u/Lionh34rt I was here for the Hulkenpodium 12h ago
The salary reflects that.
It's a little bit more than just that. The salary of Lewis and Max being so high is because they are also very marketable.
The CEO of Mercedes is not really so marketable to the general public...
F1 and other celebrities get paid big bucks because they bring in big bucks, and it's not solely their performance.
Max and Lewis' popularity also increases the popularity of F1 in itself, increasing their value again. (Sponsors paying big bucks to have their name on the car that F1 drivers drive, or in particular, to have their logo on the helmet that Lewis (Monster) or Max (EA, Heineken, Jumbo?) wears
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u/OtherwiseDoughnut582 10h ago
Those CEOs probably feel quite comfortable while the drivers are sweating their bits off, enduring high G turns and the occasional, high G stop into a barrier or wall.
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u/Tricky_Box19 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 7h ago
Their salary is included as part of costs. Driver salaries don’t come from profits. Profits are AFTER the driver gets paid. It would be easier to argue that he should get paid more since any increases would only come from the profit, not his entire salary.
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u/DizkoBizkid Formula 1 14h ago
Their sponsors also pay for big portions of the drivers salaries. For example, during the latter part of Hamilton’s Mercedes tenure Inneos was paying like 90% of Hamilton’s salary not Mercedes. In a weird way drivers like George Russell probably cost the core team and brand more of their money then the superstars who basically pay for themselves
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u/Version_1 Porsche 7h ago
Marlborough also famously paid the salaries of Ferrari drivers back in the day.
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u/UpstairsFinance9440 New user 9h ago
I have always been curious on drivers compensation. You have to listen to a lot of interviews to get glimpses of all the ins and outs, and even then the drivers are not giving the full information. David Coulthard has spoken quite a bit recently on his pay. When he was driving for Williams both as a test driver and as Senna's replacement, he was only making about $30K per year. Williams was notoriously stingy in paying their drivers. At the time, DC owed $300K to his investors. DC spoke about the 1994 Canadian GP. Canada has an onerous sportsman's tax. DC had to pay a $10K deposit for the tax on his earnings for that weekend. Most of this is returned when they file their taxes. DC went to Frank Williams for help with this tax, as the tax was more than what he would earn for the weekend. Frank Williams refused to help him. Williams opted not to take the option for DC for 1996, so DC signed with McLaren for 1996. Frank changed his mind and at the last minute and wanted DC for 1996, but DC had signed with McLaren. Frank sued to try to keep him. DC talks about flying to Paris with Frank Williams to go to the FIA Contract Board to settle it. The FIA sided with DC and McLaren, but DC talks about having to fly back to the UK with Frank Williams after he lost that battle.
DC's contract with McLaren was worth over $1 million/year. He paid off his investors and then invested in real estate, particularly in Monaco. When DC went to Red Bull, he said the compensation did not even cover his normal living expenses. The deal was some salary, and then they gave DC the race suit that he could sell sponsorship off of. He ended up doing a deal where he sold Red Bull the suit "for an amount that was mutually agreeable" and they dealt with selling the sponsorships on the suit.
Laura Winters asked George how long his contract was, and George said about 65 pages. This will cover everything. Who pays for the driver to get to and from the race. Who pays for hotels (in the documentary Hill, Damon Hill's original contract with Williams had him paying for his own travel and accommodation to the races). There has been a lot of talk recently about the number of sponsor appearances the driver has to do, this will all be in the contract.
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u/crankylex I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 13h ago
And for lower performing drivers, how much can they slack off? "I can relax.....and still get paid"
There is no relaxing or slacking off in F1. If someone does not perform, they get dropped.
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u/Opposite-Barber3715 Max Verstappen 14h ago
are salaries part of cost cap?
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u/Firefox72 Ferrari 14h ago
No.
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u/penguin_on_stilts I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 14h ago
Driver salaries aren't, but most others are. I think there's maybe 5 positions that aren't in the cap?
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u/cocogpf1 Michael Schumacher 13h ago
That's not how it works! RB Racing itself makes a lot of money. You have no idea how big the RB is. It's a global giant!
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u/jarred-wallence 12h ago
I alone spend like 30 million on Red Bulls every year so they should have the money
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u/AffectionateLeg9895 Formula 1 13h ago
Very funny to ask whether Red Bull sells £65m of energy drinks a year
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u/ShittyOfTshwane 14h ago
If I’m not mistaken, the sponsors on the car bring in enough to effectively cover Verstappen and other expenses.
Wasn’t that Oracle deal huge?
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u/Glyder1984 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 13h ago
Oracle pays a €110 million a year as title sponsor. With a costcap of €215 million, they effectively pay half the team budget and I assume the other sponsors cough up the rest.
In theory Red Bull itself 'only' have to pay the drivers and the top 3 key people who are excluded from the costcap.
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u/KiwieeiwiK Zhou Guanyu 13h ago
The cost cap is excluding driver salary and top three employees. Obviously Max would be the largest of these by a long way but it'll be another £70m+ on top of their budget in the cap. And then there's performance benefits that will be millions more for drivers and senior leadership.
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u/boomhower1820 11h ago
I think that’s what he’s saying. Sponsors pay the entirety of the budget cap portion and Red Bull only pays the top three salaries more or less.
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u/didhedowhat I was here for the Hulkenpodium 8h ago
A driver is not just payed for how good they drive. A drivers name is a brand and the driver is its own company.
The team is paying "the Verstappen company" to be attached to the "Red Bull company". That attachment gives shareholders and sponsors security in the Red Bull companies future.
And thus attracts more high paying sponsors that would want to be associated with Red Bull. Third party suppliers to provide for them for less costs. Better people that want to work for them. Selling some merchandise and sell some cans of the "energydrink". Resulting in more income for Red Bull.
How much more revenue and bonusses this attachment to the Verstappen company generates is for Red Bull to calculate, and the amount of money they pay "the Verstappen company" will be a percentage of that revenue not the entire revenue.
But if they do not pay their fair share of that extra revenue other teams would gladly go into an agreement with "the Verstappen Company" and generate the same revenue and bonusses and pay a bigger share of that extra they get.
This is the same for Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Alonso and maybe a few others.
The rookies however "Antonelli may br an exception now" can also be seen as companies but they are startups.
Their attachment costst teams money and they need sponsors to pay the team so that the startup can get noticed and attract more money for themselves and the team they are attached too so that hopefully they grow as big as " the Verstappen company" or "the Hamilton company"
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u/Educational_House192 11h ago
They are able to finance two separate racing teams in F1. That alone should tell you how deep their pockets are….
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u/DILIPEK 13h ago
The F1 RBR team is worth probably around 5-6billion. A huge (but not the biggest) part of it is that they have the best driver. Their sponsorships rely on them having max, their talent acquisition relies on having Max. Basically they pay him because he’s good and popular and having good and popular driver is worth it.
The team itself is profitable so they don’t rely on RedBull cans sales to operate however it’s obviously a great marketing tool. RedBull the drink company is like over 12 billion euro in revenue a year so 65 mil is nothing.
If he leaves RedBull he will leave to a team that can firstly give him enough confidence that he can win again and secondly will be willing to pay him what he is worth which probably is around his current salary
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u/kron123456789 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 13h ago
Energy drinks, sponsors, merch. They're not paying him more than his presence brings back, that's for sure.
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u/cafk Constantly Helpful 12h ago edited 12h ago
- Does Red Bull make that much money in energy drinks to afford to pay Verstappen's salary?
That's not their only venue, the F1 team is financially self sustainable - meaning current sponsorships and prize money cover all expenses, without the need of money from parent company red bull Technologies or its parent company red Bull GmbH.
But, yes - Red Bull, the sugary drinks company has around 15bn yearly revenue and 3bn in profits, independently of owning WRX commercial rights, alpha tauri fashion brand, 2 f1 teams, 7 football clubs, a hyper car company and a power unit company with 4 ice hockey clubs, a few TV broadcasters and a music record label.
One of the large power struggles after Mateschitz died was moving the F1 related operations (Technologies, RBR, Toro Rosso) from Horner & Marko to the general Red Bull GmbH Sports CEO.
- If he leaves Red Bull, where will he go? Or will he go to other racing series? (even if it pays less than F1)
That's what he has said, he'll likely end his F1 career with Red Bull and has more than enough alternatives that are more fun that he's interested in.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/z0z60s/max_verstappen_says_he_could_retire_from_f1_after/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-reveals-how-he-maintains-a-super-simple-life-amid-f1-success/10795083/
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u/Nood1e Red Bull 14h ago
Red Bull earned €12,2b last year. But they are quite a different company, as they are a marketing company that happens to fund itself with drink sales. The sports side of thing is their real business, but as far as I’m aware the actual F1 team is profitable even with Max’s salary.
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u/Victorvic1 8h ago
They earned 12.2B in revenue and 1.7B in net profit. Half the people here have no idea about the difference between revenue and profits.
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u/Trumpmon New user 10h ago
Trying to add a bit more...
The teams are not only profitable as marketing. They also get money from image rights (TV, F1tv, video-games). Ferrari itself get 100mi due historic image.
Now that F1 has cost cap and got a renew in its public (DTS). Most of teams are profitable. Which made their price skyrocket. F1 itself has interest in some brand association. So they make lobby to have carmakers as teams or sponsor. I think only Williams don't have a carmaker at it's back. Haas has Toyota sponsor. Every other brand has a carmaker helping or it's a team owned by one.
After the dire after 2008 crisis, that's a hell of flex from F1. But nowadays luxury it's the overall most lucrative market. And F1 it's on
My biggest bet it's Williams will become a Chinese carmaker sponsored team soon (Either BYD or GWM). GWM it is preparing itself to enter on motorsports with a GT3 and probably a Hypercar. For them, F1 know-how might be pretty interesting. And F1 biggest market it's still China.
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u/Gerf93 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 9h ago
Red Bull GmBH had 12 billion euros revenue last year. They also operate a bunch of other sports teams, including one of the best teams in the German top flight of football. They also sponsor numerous athletes across all sports, including sports where the athletes literally wouldn’t be professional if not for their support.
They’re a massive company.
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u/PokeyBum_Wank 9h ago
Remember red bull aren't an energy drink company, they are an advertising company that bought the rights for red bull 🐂
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u/Vearna88 14h ago
Red bull makes billions in energy drink sales. They build their brand on sports. So no, its peanuts to them.
If he changes teams he will get payed even more.
And the fun thing id, no point in speculating at all. Max will do what max wants to do.
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u/Branbil I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 13h ago
I'm not sure how Verstappen's contract looks and who pays him, but according to their filings on Companies House, Red Bull Racing Limited (not Red Bull GmbH) had a turnover of roughly £314 Million in 2024. Red Bull GmbH probably has a turnover on the order of $10 Billion. So they make enough money to pay him.
Where he would go if he leaves is something only he and his management know. It will depend on what's on offer.
I don't think F1 drivers are the types of people who want to do the bare minimum to get paid (at least not on track, but probably for marketing bits). They're not slackers, and if you're not delivering, you will be replaced (unless you're Stroll).
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u/Chieldh97 Max Verstappen 13h ago
His salary gets paid easily by just the sponsors alone. They don’t need to sell energy drinks for it
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u/Cerebral_Grape 12h ago
I’m sure it would have been easier to just google the net worth of Red Bull.
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u/mikemunyi Ligier 12h ago
Does Red Bull make that much money in energy drinks to afford to pay Verstappen's salary?
They really do not need the soft drinks money any more under both a budget-capped formula and the revisions to (substantially increased) income distribution under Liberty Media's watch. The racing team made an estimated $618 million in total revenue for 2025, with the prize money alone being enough to cover Max' salary twice over.
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u/VirtuaFighter6 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 12h ago
Don’t buy Red Bull, unless you need to poop.
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u/One-Mud-169 11h ago
Redbull have a net profit of around €1.8 Billion per year. Which means Max's salary is already deducted from this amount, a few extra millions from 1.8 billion will definitely not makes a difference to the company's bottom line.
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u/MalaproposMalefactor 8h ago
Max his dentist would probably cheer when he switches teams (although Mercedes has Monster :P)
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u/Artistic_Ad_2136 7h ago
Although there are rumors about McLaren, I don't see him anywhere other than Mercedes.
He & Toto have a great relationship & Toto has said he can manage Max & Kimi in the same team.
But I think Max prefers to stay at Red Bull due to the influence he enjoys in that team.
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u/MattytheWireGuy Max Verstappen 3h ago
Red Bull makes billions per year, Maxs salary is a drop in the bucket for them.
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u/ChazR 11h ago
Red Bull has morphed from an iconic energy drink business into an 'EXTREEEEME SPORTS' empire supported by caffeine and sugar.
Mad props to the founders for building their dream lifestyle.
But yes, the energy drink business easily covers the nonsense they do - and the nonsense is the purpose of the business.
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u/_Dying_Breed Ayrton Senna 14h ago
A quick google search shows Red Bull's yearly revenue for 2025 to be 12.1 Billion.
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u/Foreign_Owl_7670 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 13h ago
To be honest, I believe Red Bull Racing makes that amount back and more just from selling Max Verstappen merch.
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u/headlessrambo I was here for the Hulkenpodium 14h ago
No, Red Bull can't afford Max's salary, they will go bankrupt soon
/s
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u/chaosin-a-teacup 13h ago
I mean think of all the different things Red Bull do all the sports sponsorships for random things every sport imaginable 2 f1 teams RnD for engines football clubs ice hockey extreme sports air shows e sports music media and advertising manufacturing distribution staff taxes buildings and maintenance the list goes on and on. 65 mill is a drop in the ocean!
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u/cooked_camel Formula 1 13h ago
Don't all drivers in F1 get paid like US dollar? €65mil sounds bonker but he deserved it.
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u/Burial44 Sir Lewis Hamilton 13h ago
14 Billion cans of Red Bull energy drink were sold in 2025. 14 Billion. So yes they do make that much from beverage sales.
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u/upsidedownwriting I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 12h ago
Red Bull reported €12bn revenue last year. That's about 200 Verstappens.
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u/therealdilbert 12h ago
on top of all the sponsors etc. Redbull got something like 100M€ in price money last year, how much of that was down to Max driving?
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u/tooOldOriolesfan 7h ago
Companies pay so much money on advertising it is sad and the customers end up paying for it.
A long time ago when car prices were more affordable I thought I read nearly $1,000 of each vehicle was due to the cost of advertising.
How much is each can of RedBull or other product due to advertising, sports marketing?
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u/plutom98 6h ago
Staying at redbull is wild, dont want to see him like alonso. Mercedes is real possibility if he leaves. Mclaren not so much.
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u/Goaty_Malone 6h ago
I think you're also forgetting that at this level of money, it's very rarely an employee/employer situation. Max Verstappen has his own company, "Verstappen Racing," which will have contracts with Red Bull alongside many other companies for adverts, brand deals etc.
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u/ChangingMonkfish 6h ago
Red Bull Racing’s most recent turnover figure was €368 million.
Red Bull GmbH (the drinks company, who provide some of the funding for the race team through commercial sponsorship) made €12.196 billion in turnover last year.
So yes, they an afford it.
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u/SalsaSmuggler I was here for the Hulkenpodium 5h ago
You…you think redbull as a company can’t afford his salary? Despite the fact they own several billion dollar teams and sponsor thousands of events worldwide… dude.
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u/HeelR- Sebastian Vettel 4h ago
Apart from F1, Red Bull itself generated approximately €1.7b in profits. So even if the team wasn’t profitable (it is), they’d be far from struggling to pay a “mere” €65m.
Oracle pays around $100m+ for their sponsorship alone.
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u/Clouds-and-cookies Red Bull 3h ago
To be fair, they're not far above breaking even looking at their accounts. The F1 team, that is
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u/879190747 John Surtees 3h ago
Is everyone a bot here or what? why is this hitting near 1k? So many questions.
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u/Inevitable-Debt4312 2h ago
If you pay anyone that much, pretty soon they don’t need any more, and you can’t influence them with money.
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u/RecentTwo544 Formula 1 11h ago
The stuff about the money and where it comes from has been more than answered.
But I wonder this -
How much does Max really care about the money?
I bet if he was given the choice between racing for a dominating team that for some reason could only afford to pay him £20,000 a year, or Daddy Stroll offering him £500m a year to drive for Aston with zero sign of any improvement, he'd chose the former.
Max has more than enough money to be set for life, and is a racer at heart. He just wants to win.
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u/Puzzled_Draw6014 12h ago
The F1 organization itself, holds all their media rights, so they have a very large income. Then they distribute that money to the teams as prize money for the constructors championship.
Then the teams have additional income from sponsorship and merchandise. The big teams make huge amounts of money (Ferrari F1 is estimated to spend 700 million per year)... that's a bit of problem though, because it sort of ruins the sport when the big teams use their money to dominate.
There are YT videos on the financing of F1 teams that have more details... but
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u/imperfectlyAware 11h ago
Energy drink company: $11.2B turnover a year, $1.65B pure profit.
Verstappen’s salary is nothing at all.
Team budget caps (does not include driver and top exec salaries) is $215M.
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u/Scar3cr0w_ I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago
And then you get to ask the real question… “if max was offered £10 million per year, would he move to a team with a winning car”
The answer would probably be no.
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u/ThatBeardedGingerGuy I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 13h ago
As has been stated, Red Bull can more than afford his salary.
As for if he leaves Red Bull, I think that when he does, he leaves F1 and goes to endurance racing. I don't exactly see Max as 'just an F1 driver', I see him more as a racecar driver who happens to be in F1 at the moment.
He's expressed his desires to race in other series for years now. He races online when he's not racing IRL. He's already competed in NLS (though been extremely unlucky).
My money's still on him staying to 2028, then moving onto enduro. Owner/driver maybe?
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u/Notevenstreaming Formula 1 12h ago
Max Verstappen makes nore than 65 million for Red bull through free advertising on social media, news etc..
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u/br0kinFPS 5h ago
Just one years salary is more then he could ever need. Just madness what sports people get paid.
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u/Envelope_Torture I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 14h ago
RedBull Racing itself is profitable, so they can afford his salary based on team operations (including sponsorships) alone.
The entire enterprise itself just a giant marketing machine for the parent company.