Red Bull Racing

MAX VERSTAPPEN will have to pay more than £1MILLION to compete in F1 next season.The Dutch star, 26, claimed his third successive drivers’ championship in 2023 with a record 16 wins and 575 points.
Max Verstappen will have to pay more than £1million to take part in the 2024 seasonCredit: Rex
Lewis Hamilton will only have to pay £431,000 to compete next yearCredit: Alamy
But the price of his dominant year means he will have to shell out a substantial amount to compete in 2024.
F1 racing licences for the following season are always calculated by the previous term’s points totals.
The base cost for the drivers is nearly £9,000, before each point accumulated incurs an additional £1800.
This means Verstappen’s 575-point total racks up a payment of more than £1m.
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The overall total for the Dutch driver stands at £1,046,911.
However, it is likely Red Bull will cover the cost of the racing licence for their star man.
Meanwhile, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton will only have to pay £431,349 to compete in 2024 – less than half the fee of rival Verstappen.
He picked up just 234 points and failed to win a race for a second consecutive season.
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Williams driver Logan Sargeant, who claimed just one point in the 2023 season, will pay the least amount after accumulating a total of just £10,800.
Verstappen has complained in the past about having to pay the hefty fees.
He said: “I don’t think it’s right that we have to pay so much.
“It doesn’t happen in other sports either. And there are more and more races.”
There will be a record 24 races next season, up from 22 in 2023. More

FORMULA ONE legend Jacques Villeneuve revealed secret backstage talks between rivals “always happen” in the paddock.This comes after sensational rumours suggesting Mercedes superstar Sir Lewis Hamilton sent someone to approach Red Bull team principal Christian Horner regarding a shock swap.
Jacques Villeneuve revealed backstage talks between rivals ‘always happen’Credit: Splash
Shock reports claim a member of Sir Lewis Hamilton’s camp approached Red BullCredit: Getty
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed Hamilton’s rep discussed a possible swapCredit: Alamy
Villeneuve wasn’t stunned by those reports as he remembers similar incidents taking place during his glory years on a regular basis.
However, the Williams great insists when the news come out a driver always has to make sure they negate those rumours.
Villeneuve told Planet F1: “It gets a lot of print!
“As a driver, you’re not allowed to talk to other teams while you’re under contract and all that. But talks always happen.
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“Obviously, you cross people in the paddock or, sometimes, you’ll use someone who doesn’t work for you, but will still do the talk so you’re protected.
“But, if the noise comes out, you have to negate it. Then who’s there to check?”
In the lead-up to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Horner revealed a member of Hamilton’s camp had approached him to talk about a possible switch to his team.
A Red Bull spokesperson then revealed that conversation had been with Sir Lewis’ father Anthony.
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But both the British superstar and Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff quickly shut down those claims.
Hamilton has vehemently denied those rumours and even claimed Horner was “just stirring things”.
The seven-time F1 world champion added he had no knowledge regarding an approach from his camp. More

LEWIS HAMILTON has admitted he would love to drive Red Bull’s Formula One car.Mercedes have had a challenging couple of years since the new era of F1 car designs were introduced into the sporting regulations.
Lewis Hamilton has admitted he would ‘love’ to drive the Red Bull F1 carCredit: Alamy
Max Verstappen enjoyed unprecedented success behind the wheel this seasonCredit: Getty
The Brackley-based team have won just won race in the last two seasons, with that sole win coming with George Russell in Brazil 2022.
And that has left seven-time world champion Hamilton without a race win for two years, having previously won a race in every season he had featured in beforehand.
Hamilton showed his quality by finishing the best of the rest in the 2023 drivers championship, but was still unable to snatch a race win thanks to the unprecedented dominance of Red Bull.
Indeed, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was the only driver not in a Red Bull to take a chequered flag this season as Max Verstappen hoovered up a record-breaking 19 race wins and Sergio Perez landed two.
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Red Bull brainiac designer Adrian Newey has already claimed their car evolution plan next year will be “so difficult for anyone to catch up”, so Hamilton’s challenge may get even harder.
NOT that the 38-year-old is backing down from the challenge, but he believes every driver on the grid would love driving the “most dominant car of all-time”.
As quoted by F1i.com, he said: “Every driver here looks at the Red Bull car and would love to drive that car, and I am not saying that I wouldn’t love to drive that car and feel how good it is, every driver would feel that.”
However, he also backed Mercedes to recreate the winning formula which allowed Hamilton to land six of his seven world titles.
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He said: “We’ve had two difficult years, and if we work towards beating that car, it is going to be a way better feeling than stepping into the best car.
“That wouldn’t do much for me, in the sense of stepping into the car that is the most dominant of all-time.
“Working with my team to build and be able to beat them, that would be better for my legacy.”
Despite this, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has backed Hamilton to be fighting for the title in 2024, so long as the team deliver a car capable keeping up with Red Bull.
When asked by Sky Sports as to whether they can bridge that gap next season, Wolff said: “New season starts with a completely new car and that gives opportunities but also risks.
“I think we’ve got to be realistic.”
He added: “If we are able to give him the car, then he will be fighting for a world championship.
“I have no doubt. It’s clear that when you have a Formula 1 car like we have now, you are never at ease with it.”
Verstappen broke a number of records with Red Bull in 2023, including the sport’s longest race-winning streak with ten and becoming the first driver to ever lead 1000 laps in a season.
Complete F1 2023 race calendar – details on every Grand Prix this year More

LEWIS HAMILTON has accused Christian Horner of “stirring things” after the Red Bull chief claimed he was keen to join them from Mercedes.Horner told the Daily Mail that a representative of Hamilton’s had reached out to him about joining Red Bull to work alongside Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton has slammed Christian Horner for “stirring things”Credit: Rex
Horner had claimed that a member of Hamilton’s team had reached out to him about Hamilton joining Red BullCredit: Getty

But the Brit driver has rubbished the claims in an interview ahead of this weekend’s season closer in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “I don’t really know where that story’s come from. I mean I know it has come from Christian [Horner].
“I don’t really understand what he’s been talking about because no one from my team as far as I’m aware has spoken to him.
“I haven’t spoken to Christian, really, in years. However, he did reach out to me earlier in the year about meeting up, but that’s it.
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“I just congratulated them on an amazing year and said hopefully soon I’ll be able to fight against them in the near future – that was it.
“So I’m not really sure, I think it’s just stirring things.”
Hamilton had been linked with an exit from the Mercedes in recent times, but ended up agreeing a new deal with the Silver Arrows this August that will see him stay put until 2025.
When probed further about the Horner’s claims, Hamilton doubled down on the fact there had been no talks.
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He said: “There aren’t any confidential discussions. You know Christian, he loves that kind of stuff.”
The 38-year-old has been struggling at Mercedes over the last two years and is now just one race away from going two seasons without a single win.
Meanwhile Red Bull have made this year’s competition essentially a nine month long procession due to their dominance.
Max Verstappen tied up his third consecutive World Championship in Qatar with SIX races still to go.
The Belgian-Dutch driver has won all but three of this year’s Grand Prix with his teammate Sergio Perez winning two of the races he was unsuccessful in. More