Mercedes is going to offer Verstappen an unprecedented salary in F1 history : F1LV Blog

Several sources say that already this week the “Mercedes” team is going to make an offer to Max Verstappen with an unprecedented salary in the history of F1.

“Mercedes” manager Toto Wolff for many weeks has not publicly hidden his desire to hire Verstappen for the next F1 season, when Lewis Hamilton will have left to start at Ferrari, freeing up his place in the team.

OE24 and “F1 Insider” report that “Mercedes” has prepared an offer for Verstappen for 150 million euros per year, including bonuses. It is reported that the negotiations will start already this week in Miami, where the sixth stage of the championship will take place.

Although Verstappen has a contract with the “Red Bull” team until 2028, this year the situation in the champion’s team has seriously deteriorated, even despite the still fantastic results in the races. As a result of internal disagreements, the team’s chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, is about to leave the team, which has not yet been officially announced.

Unofficially, it is also known that Verstappen’s contract has a clause that the Dutchman may terminate it early if consultant Helmut Marko, who has a very good relationship with the pilot, leaves the team. It is claimed that should Verstappen decide to join Mercedes next year, Marco would leave Red Bull with him.

In Verstappen’s camp, there is disbelief that Red Bull will be able to continue its dominance in 2026, when the new technical regulations come into force. There are concerns that Red Bull Powertrains will not be able to create a competitive engine right away. In addition, the departure of Newey could also negatively affect the performance of the rest of the machine. On the other hand, “Mercedes” is said to have gone further than others with the development of the new generation power unit.