F1 Gossip: Max Verstappen agrees £40m-a-year ‘super contract’ with Red Bull

Lewis Larkam's picture
2 Mar 2022
F1 Gossip: Verstappen agrees £40m-a-year ‘super contract’

In the latest F1 Gossip, Verstappen agrees new 'super contract', Ferrari make major engine progress, and Mercedes eye up Red Bull's "interesting" sidepod design...

- F1 world champion Max Verstappen has agreed a new 'super contract’ that will see him remain at Red Bull for the foreseeable future in a deal worth £41.7m (€50m) a year (De Telegraaf) 

That is according to a report in De Telegraaf by Dutch journalist Erik Van Haren, who is very close to the Verstappen camp. Van Haren reports that Verstappen is on the verge on signing a deal for the next four-to-five years. 

Final agreement between the two parties was understood to have been agreed during last week’s opening pre-season test at Barcelona and an official announcement could come as early as this week. 

- Ferrari has reportedly made major progress with its new internal combustion engine for 2022 that puts it on a par with Mercedes and Honda in terms of total power output (La Gazzetta dello Sport) 

- Despite being forced to end its pre-season test at Barcelona early, Fernando Alonso is confident Alpine has made a “step forward” with its new power unit for the 2022 season (F1.com) 

- Mercedes technical director Mike Elliot has admitted the team is looking closely at Red Bull’s “interesting” design concept of the aggressive new sidepods on its RB18 (RacingNews365) 

- F1 team bosses have moved to justify the increasing amount of sponsorship deals with cytocurrency brands amid concerns over their stability and impact on the environment (RaceFans) 

- Michael Andretti says he has approached Gene Haas about selling his F1 team “five or six” times, but the American is refusing to sell up (MotorsportWeek.com)

- Following Haas’ decision to remove Uralkali’s branding from its livery for the final day of running at the Barcelona test, the Russian company’s logos are also missing from Formula 2 team Hitech GP’s livery for 2022