- Aston Martin tells potential sponsors that Max Verstappen will join them
- The four-time Dutch world champion's contract could be worth up to £1bn
- The deal would almost certainly include shares in the Silverstone-based team.
Aston Martin is telling potential sponsors that Max Verstappen will join them in their ambitious bid to win the world title, in a £1bn deal that would be one of the biggest in the history of the sport.
The four-time world champion's contract could be worth up to £1bn for the rest of his career and would almost certainly include shares in the Silverstone-based team.
Mail Sport has been told that Jefferson Slack, a close lieutenant of billionaire Canadian Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll, recently made overtures to potential investors claiming the 27-year-old Dutchman will join them.
For now, this is a firm wish rather than a certain fact. Verstappen has stated in recent weeks that the ideal would be to end his illustrious career at Red Bull, where he has achieved all his consecutive successes and has a contract until 2028.
However, Verstappen's outstanding talent marks him out as the one commodity every team manager would dream of recruiting, including a serial business winner like fashion mogul Stroll.
Verstappen currently earns around £50m a year. Only seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who started at Ferrari this year, matches that figure, potentially surpassing it when bonuses are added.
Aston Martin is telling potential sponsors that Max Verstappen (pictured above) will join them in their ambitious bid to win the world title, in a £1bn deal.
The four-time world champion's contract could be worth up to £1bn for the rest of his career and would almost certainly include shares in the Silverstone-based team.
Mail Sport has been told that Jefferson Slack, a close lieutenant of Canadian billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll (above), recently made overtures to potential investors.
It would take a lot of money to lure away the sport's best driver – perhaps £200m a year. Verstappen is the only man in this sport who can practically set his own price.
Aston Martin has been in casual contact with the Verstappen camp, although mainly in relation to its endurance racing programme.
The Verstappens are likely to keep an open mind for now, weighing up how the new Ford-backed engine built by Red Bull fares under new regulations coming in next year.
A source with knowledge of the situation said of Slack, Aston's chief commercial and marketing officer: “Jefferson, or Jeff as he is known to others, has been saying that Max is joining Aston Martin.” It may be a ploy, adding extra value to the deal he wants to close, but bringing Max also makes a lot of sense.
They've hired Adrian Newey for £20m a year as the greatest car designer of all time, and Lawrence won't let that be it.
“He has said he wants to win the world title and will not let anything stand in his way. He wants to end the dominant era led by Christian Horner (at Red Bull) and Toto Wolff (at Mercedes).
'It is believed that Adrian thinks Lance Stroll (son of owner Lawrence) is not a good enough driver. And that Fernando Alonso, at 43 years old, is too old.
'Adrian is determined to achieve success once again and wants to work with the best.
Aston Martin (general team pictured above with Brad Pitt) has been in casual contact with the Verstappen camp, although mainly in relation to its endurance racing programme.
Verstappen is the only man in the sport who can practically set his own price.
“They gave Adrian a shareholding to get him out of Red Bull and they could possibly do the same with Max.”
When asked for a response, an Aston Martin spokesperson “firmly” denied that Slack had made any approaches based on the possibility of Verstappen joining them. The spokesperson stressed that both Stroll Jr. and Alonso have contracts for this year and next.