{"id":235075,"date":"2025-07-03T15:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235075\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T15:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:47:09","slug":"max-verstappen-linked-with-100m-contract-buyout-as-drastic-red-bull-action-teased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235075\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen linked with \u00a3100m contract buyout as drastic Red Bull action teased"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen may have to pay in excess of \u00a3100million to cut himself free from his Red Bull contract to join Mercedes for the F1 2026 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is the claim of Sky F1 reporter Craig Slater, who says the figure has been put forward by a \u201cteam insider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen to pay \u2018\u00a3100m\u2019 to force Red Bull to Mercedes move?<\/p>\n

Despite being officially under contract with Red Bull until the end of the F1 2028 season, Verstappen has been heavily linked with a move away from the team at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, confirmed to media including PlanetF1.com<\/a> last year that the Dutchman\u2019s contract contains a \u201cperformance element\u201d that could allow him to leave the team before the end of his deal.<\/p>\n

It is believed that Verstappen can activate an exit clause if he is lower than fourth in the Drivers\u2019 Championship after next month\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix, the final race before the summer break.<\/p>\n

Analysis: Max Verstappen or George Russell? The choice for Mercedes is simple<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Austrian GP conclusions: Verstappen\u2019s Mercedes guarantee as Russell\u2019s words come back to bite<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 How Max Verstappen to Mercedes could shake up F1 2026 driver market<\/a><\/p>\n

Verstappen currently occupies third in the standings with a nine-point lead over George Russell, the driver with whose Mercedes seat he has been linked.<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver who\u2019s fortunes could theoretically trigger the Red Bull driver\u2019s exit clause, sits a further 27 points behind in fifth.<\/p>\n

A report in Italy on Wednesday claimed that Verstappen is close to sealing a deal with Mercedes<\/a> for F1 2026, with the transfer awaiting approval from the Mercedes board.<\/p>\n

It came just days after Russell, whose current contract expires at the end of this season, revealed that talks to take the four-time world champion to Mercedes<\/a> are \u201congoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it appears that Verstappen will not meet the criteria to activate his Red Bull exit clause as things stand, it is possible that the he could force a switch to Mercedes for next season.<\/p>\n

Slater has estimated that it could cost the 27-year-old in excess of \u00a3100m to break free from his Red Bull deal \u2013 and that team and driver could eventually come to a compromise to allow the 27-year-old to walk away and join Mercedes.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Sky, he said: \u201cThe sort of internal discussion with the Red Bull hierarchy about losing Verstappen or keeping an unhappy Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then also this idea which has been expressed to me from a team insider that it would cost in excess of nine figures \u2013 so \u00a3100 million plus \u2013 for Max to buy his way out of his deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you force that or do you come to some kind of arrangement, a bit like in football, if a player wants away, normally they get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Max Verstappen news<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Red Bull news<\/a><\/p>\n

According to estimated figures by PlanetF1.com<\/a>, Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull contract makes him the highest-paid driver on the current grid.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old is believed to be earning a salary of $75million (\u00a355m\/\u20ac63.6m at current exchange rates) in the F1 2025 season.<\/p>\n

The next best-paid driver is Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion, whose Ferrari contract is thought to be worth $57m (\u00a341.8m\/\u20ac48.3m) per season.<\/p>\n

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the Austrian Grand Prix, Horner pointed out that Mercedes have \u201cgot their own problems\u201d after Russell finished more than a minute behind the race-winning McLaren of Lando Norris at the Red Bull Ring.<\/p>\n

He said:\u00a0\u201cI think they\u2019ve got their own problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were 62 seconds behind the race leader, so Mercedes have got their own issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just focused on ourselves. We know what the situation is with Max.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what the contracts are with Max, and the rest is all noise that\u2019s not coming from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes\u2019 preparations for the new F1 2026 rules, which will see Formula 1 embrace 50 per cent electrification, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics, are widely believed to be advanced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Brackley-based outfit previously emerged as F1\u2019s dominant force following the last major engine rule changes in 2014, sparking a record run of eight consecutive Constructors\u2019 World Championships and seven Drivers\u2019 titles split between Lewis Hamilton (six) and Nico Rosberg (one).<\/p>\n

Red Bull will produce its own engine for the first time next season via its newly established Red Bull Powertrains division, in conjunction with US giants Ford.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Red Bull\u2019s current engine supplier Honda will form a new technical partnership with the Aston Martin team from F1 2026.<\/p>\n

It will seen Honda return to F1 on a full-time basis having initially withdrawn following Verstappen\u2019s first title triumph in 2021.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Max Verstappen\u2019s \u2018astronomical\u2019 asking price under scrutiny as Hill weighs in<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen may have to pay in excess of \u00a3100million to cut himself free from his Red Bull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[225,1073,4859,12,226,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-235075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-max-verstappen","10":"tag-mercedes","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-red-bull","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114790088762781171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}