Four years, four championships. Needless to say, Max Verstappen’s era is flying high. What started off in 2021 with a controversial victory in Abu Dhabi turned into a full-fledged era of dominance, matching the achievements of former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel. As the 2025 season approaches, Red Bull has a massive bill on their hands, but it’s not the crash bill.

The Super License, as many would know, has to be renewed every year, and the amount seems to go higher and higher. However, this has not made him lose his standing. Verstappen remains the one to pay the most for his license renewal by 2025.

Verstappen ends up saving nearly $300,000 on his 2025 license renewal

2023 Max Verstappen finished off the drive with a total of 575 points. This ensured that he became the one to pay the highest for his license renewal. The Red Bull champion had to pay $1.3 million in 2023. However, since Max Verstappen ends this year as the Champion for 2024 following his podium at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, he amassed a total of only 437 points. He might be saving quite a bit for Red Bull.

Given that the amount for the Super License is directly related to the points scored, Verstappen ended up saving quite a bit. This year, he has to pay only $$1.079 million for his license renewal. All drivers are required to pay a base Super Licence fee of $12,097 (a figure that has gone up from $10,981 per point from 2023), with an additional charge calculated per point earned in the previous year’s championship. With each point costing $2,433 and Max Verstappen scoring 437 points, his total comes up to $1.075 million, considerably less than his 2023 license which was worth $1,286,324. 

The amount for the renewal is quite hefty and last year, Max Verstappen expressed his true feelings about the same. He said, “I think the amount is absurd. I don’t think it’s right that we have to pay so much. That’s not the case in other sports either. And there are more and more races.” The point Verstappen tried to make was that his points tally was greater because of the added races in the season. As fans may know, the addition of new races made the 2023 F1 season the most races held in a season at 22. The number has since increased to 24.

It didn’t help that Verstappen also won 19 of those 22 races, meaning that he would have higher points than any other driver. It almost seems like dominant F1 drivers are penalized for their success in the sport. This year painted a different picture. Although Max Verstappen started 2024 in a similar form to last year, but after the Spanish GP, he faced a drought of wins. McLaren and Lando Norris delivered a flurry of wins, even looking like they could steal the Drivers Championship at one point. However, Norris had to settle for second in the end.

For Red Bull, what seemed like a disaster halfway through the season turned out to have a silver lining. Because Red Bull usually pays for Verstappen’s’ license, it means they have to shell out a marginally smaller amount this year. On the other hand, the team turned Verstappen into the highest paid driver.

Verstappen tops the chart as the highest-paid driver yet again in 2024

It seems like it is not only for spending money, Max Verstappen has been able to break all records for earning the most as well. As the season ends, Verstappen became the highest-paid driver for the 2024 season as well. However, this time, he did not have all the odds favoring him. The Dutch driver most certainly did not have the fastest driver. This was evident as Red Bull fell into the P3 position during the Constructor’s Championship after McLaren and Ferrari.

Given his record, Verstappen had signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Milton-Keynes-based outfit. This ensured that is a part of the team for all the  till seasons till 2028. Along with that, Verstappen had also seen a hike in salary. He is getting paid roughly 74 million dollars per year. Verstappen has been leading the chart for the past two years, all thanks to the exemplary performance he has shown over the years. 

Speaking about his 2024 title victory, Verstappen said, “It was a very challenging season. I think also as a person, at times it’s very challenging and I had to be calm. And I think in a way, of course, I still prefer last season. I enjoyed that a lot, but I think this season, definitely, again, taught me a lot of lessons that I’m very proud of. How we handled it also as a team. So in a way, of course, that makes it also a very, very special and beautiful season.”

Despite a slight dip in his 2024 performance, Verstappen’s earning power remains unmatched, solidifying his position as a financial powerhouse in Formula 1. His lucrative contracts and salary hikes reflect not just his talent but also his immense marketability and influence in the sport.