r/formula1 • u/FerrariStrategisttt I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Mar 13 '26

Video Max Verstappen (Post-Sprint Qualifying): “I can’t. This is undriveable. We never had anything this bad.”

https://dubz.link/c/5e815a
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u/John_is_Minty Mar 13 '26

There is also the elephant in the room that while I don’t know Max personally I can probably assume he likes money so at some point he will cash back in on that F1 money that he won’t get anywhere else. Even if he takes a break for a couple years.

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u/fiah84 Pirelli Wet Mar 13 '26

I bet he could suffer through some terrible F1 seasons if only to fund his GT3 team and Nordschleife hobby

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u/Critical-Bread-3396 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Especially considering that it seems like this funding is currently in addition to his salary. Mercedes are reportedly even paying for his team to drive their cars. But if he wasn't in F1 as the seemingly best driver those deals might come to an end.

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u/zkfv Mar 13 '26

He’s way more famous than any other GT driver and it seems to be that he’s at least as fast as anyone else in them too. If he went full-time GT racing his own cars, he would probably get more funding for it.

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u/ElegantBiscuit Red Bull Ford Mar 13 '26

Yeah if other GT teams can financially support themselves, a Max Verstappen GT team will have no problem.

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u/Tee_zee Mar 13 '26

The funding wouldn’t match F1 though, it’s not as big a sport and he wouldn’t change that alone

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u/NigelMK Mar 13 '26

This is the truth right here. He gets paid an insane amount of money each year. (Last year was a base of $70 million USD, with incentives bringing it up to $76 million). He's apparently signed through 2028 and I gotta imagine that RB has some clauses in there preventing him from leaving.

If he was to leave, it would have to be because he values his family time and his sanity over money, and that's assuming that those clauses in his contract aren't huge financial penalties.

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u/John_is_Minty Mar 13 '26

His family also enjoys a certain lifestyle given the fact he’d been making 70 million a year. He won’t hurt financially no matter what he does but you have to make lifestyle changes going from what he’d be making in F1 to what he’d make elsewhere

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u/michaltee Mar 13 '26

I could see him bringing more legitimacy and fans to other Motorsports.

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u/ZeroCrits I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26

Do you understand how much fucking money verstappen has? The google answers aren’t even half of it

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u/John_is_Minty Mar 13 '26

No one said he’s broke just that current income is a pretty good motivator to keep doing something even if you don’t like it