How Much Does Max Verstappen Make? Salary, Net Worth, and Endorsements

• Max Verstappen earns approximately $65 to $70 million per year in base salary from Red Bull, with up to $11.5 million in performance bonuses bringing his total on-track earnings to around $76 million annually.
• His estimated net worth sits between $200 million and $250 million as of 2026, built from career F1 earnings of over $245 million, endorsement deals worth $15 to $25 million per year, and growing business ventures.
• Verstappen is the highest-paid driver on the Formula 1 grid and ranked 17th on the 2025 Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid athletes.

Max Verstappen Salary: What Red Bull Pays Its Champion

Max Verstappen earns between $65 million and $70 million per year in base salary from Red Bull Racing. On top of that fixed amount, his contract includes performance bonuses worth up to $11.5 million per season, tied to race wins, podium finishes, and championship results. When those bonuses are factored in, his total annual earnings from Red Bull reach approximately $76 million.

That figure makes him the highest-paid driver in Formula 1 history. The contract behind it was signed in early 2024, locking Verstappen into a five-year deal that runs through the end of 2028. The full agreement is estimated to be worth $275 million across its duration, making it the longest and most lucrative driver contract the sport has seen.

How Verstappen’s Pay Has Grown

Verstappen’s salary growth mirrors his rise through the grid. When he joined Toro Rosso as a 17-year-old in 2015, his pay was roughly $277,500 per year. By 2017, after his promotion to the senior Red Bull team, that had risen to around $3 million. His first World Championship in 2021 came with total earnings of $42 million, split between a $25 million base and $17 million in bonuses. Each title and each contract renegotiation pushed the numbers higher, reaching the current level by 2025.

His father Jos Verstappen raced 107 Grands Prix across nine seasons without ever earning close to these figures. The financial side of Formula 1 has changed beyond recognition in the decades between their careers, and Max’s four consecutive World Championships between 2021 and 2024 gave him the leverage to demand the highest salary on the grid.

How He Compares to Other F1 Drivers

Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari in 2025 came with a reported base salary of $60 to $70 million, putting him in the same bracket as Verstappen before bonuses are added. Lando Norris signed a substantial McLaren extension estimated at up to $57.5 million per year. Charles Leclerc earns between $30 million and $34 million at Ferrari, and Oscar Piastri’s McLaren deal is reportedly worth around $37.5 million annually. Fernando Alonso takes home approximately $20 million from Aston Martin.

When total on-track earnings including bonuses are compared, Verstappen sits at the top. His $76 million edges out Hamilton’s total package, though Hamilton’s endorsement portfolio narrows the gap in overall annual income.

Max Verstappen Net Worth: Career Earnings, Sponsors, and Business Ventures

Max Verstappen’s net worth is estimated at between $200 million and $250 million as of 2026. Celebrity Net Worth places the figure at $200 million, while other financial tracking sources push the estimate closer to $250 million when accounting for his most recent contract payments and the growth of his business interests.

That wealth comes from three main streams: F1 salary, endorsement deals, and a growing portfolio of racing-related businesses.

Career Earnings from Formula 1

Verstappen’s total F1 salary earnings from 2015 through to the current season are estimated at between $245 million and $310 million, depending on how performance bonuses across each year are calculated. The bulk of that total has come from 2021 onwards, when his first championship triggered a significant pay increase. His earnings from the first three years of his career (2015 to 2017) totalled less than $4 million combined. The contrast with his current annual figure of $76 million shows how rapidly his value has grown.

Sponsorship and Endorsement Deals

Verstappen’s personal endorsement deals are estimated to bring in between $15 million and $25 million per year on top of his Red Bull salary. Forbes used a more conservative figure of $8 million in endorsements for their 2025 athlete rankings, though that appears to count only a narrow category of deals.

His confirmed brand partnerships include TAG Heuer (watches, a deal running from 2016), Heineken 0.0 (global brand ambassador from 2023), Jumbo Supermarkets (Dutch retail chain), CarNext.com (digital used-car platform), G-Star RAW (Dutch fashion label, including the exclusive MAXRAW clothing line), EA Sports (cover athlete for F1 25), AlphaTauri (Red Bull’s fashion brand, from 2025), Ziggo (Dutch telecoms), and Viaplay (streaming). Red Bull itself also pays a separate personal endorsement fee on top of his racing contract, estimated at $15 to $20 million.

Business Ventures Beyond the Cockpit

Verstappen has built two racing operations under the Verstappen Racing umbrella. The first is Verstappen.com Racing, a GT3 team founded in 2022 that competes in the DTM and GT World Challenge Europe. The team signed a multi-year deal with Mercedes-AMG for GT3 machinery from 2026 onwards.

The second is Verstappen Sim Racing, formerly Team Redline, which was rebranded in March 2026. The team operates from a facility in Tilburg, Netherlands, and functions as both a competitive sim racing outfit and a driver development pathway. One of its sim racers, Chris Lulham, received funding from Verstappen and went on to win a class at the 2025 24 Hours of Spa. The vision is to connect sim racing talent through to real-world GT3 seats within the same organisation.

Monaco and Tax Residency

Verstappen moved to Monaco the day after his 18th birthday. The principality charges zero personal income tax, which on a salary of $65 to $70 million translates to estimated annual tax savings of $28 to $31 million compared to what a UK-based driver would pay. Over the full length of his current contract, the tax advantage is worth well over $100 million.

The 2026 Season and What Comes Next

Verstappen’s contract with Red Bull runs through 2028, but the 2026 season has introduced real uncertainty about whether he will see it out. New technical regulations have changed the competitive order, and Verstappen has spoken publicly about his frustration with the early results. His contract includes an exit clause that can be activated if he does not finish at least second in the Drivers’ Championship by the mid-season break. If triggered, he would have a three-month window between August and October to inform Red Bull of his decision to leave.

Whether that means retirement or a move to another team remains an open question. At 28 years old with four World Championships and career earnings approaching $300 million, Verstappen has the financial freedom to walk away from Formula 1 whenever he chooses.

Max Verstappen Salary FAQs

Sources

• Max Verstappen Career Earnings, Spotrac
• Max Verstappen Net Worth, Celebrity Net Worth
• Max Verstappen Signs Contract Extension Through 2028, ESPN
• World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2025, Forbes

Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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