Montoya proposes $50 million Max Verstappen loss theory behind Red Bull stay

Max Verstappen recently silenced the rumour mill regarding a move to Mercedes, remaining loyal to Red Bull.

That has led seven-time grand prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya to propose a financial theory behind that decision. The Colombian is pondering whether Verstappen’s salary potential was slashed by “$50 million” due to a less fruitful F1 2025 campaign thus far, forcing him to stay put.

Did F1 2025 predicament knock ‘$50m’ off Max Verstappen value?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The latest F1 ‘silly season’ brought a sense of deja vu when it came to Verstappen, as just like last year, talk of a move to Mercedes bubbled away.

In 2024, Verstappen was able to rough out Red Bull’s fading performance to secure a fourth World Championship in a row. Repeating that achievement in F1 2025 is looking highly unlikely now that McLaren has emerged as the dominant force. Verstappen is 97 points behind Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri.

With new chassis and engine regulations on the way for F1 2026, the rumours of Verstappen to Mercedes returned. Mercedes nailed the last set of engine changes, going on a record run of eight straight Constructors’ title wins from 2014-21 when the turbo-hybrid engines arrived.

Red Bull meanwhile is becoming an engine manufacturer in its own right from F1 2026, working in partnership with Ford.

But rather than competitive reasons behind the decision to stay with Red Bull, Montoya teased a financial aspect, mulling over the idea of whether Verstappen lost $50m in salary bargaining power with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.

“I don’t think he had a choice,” Montoya told a gambling platform in regards to Verstappen staying at Red Bull.

“If I was negotiating with Max last year when he was winning the World Championship, let’s say, it would have cost $100m.

“This year he’s in a struggling car. The number could be $50m. Maybe that was the reason he stayed.

“Maybe Max thought he was going to get [$50m] and whoever was speaking to him would have the upper hand, knowing that Max would want them more than they want Max.

“Last year, the number had to be like over the moon to get Max. I think this year, if you’re negotiating for Max, you can negotiate.

“Tell him, if you want to be here, this is the number. Toto could offer Max half what he would have needed to last year.”

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Now for the popular theory behind Max Verstappen staying at Red Bull

The Verstappen to Mercedes rumours relied heavily on the existence of a performance-related exit clause within his Red Bull contract. It is believed that had Verstappen been fourth or lower in the Drivers’ Championship at the summer break, he would have been able to trigger that clause.

But, Verstappen went into the final race before that break – the Hungarian Grand Prix – locked into third in the standings.

And it was ahead of that race weekend where, for the first time, he put the Mercedes rumours to bed.

When asked by media including PlanetF1.com if he can confirm himself as a Red Bull F1 2026 driver, Verstappen replied: “Yeah.

“It’s quite interesting to follow all that, the amount of nice stories certainly that came out of it.

“But for me, I’ve never really said anything about it because I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance, future ideas for next year as well, and that’s why I have nothing really to add ever.

“But I think it’s time to basically stop all the rumours and, for me, it’s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.

“I think that was also the general feeling in the team anyway, because we were always in discussions about what we could do with the car.

“I think when you’re not interested in staying then you also stop talking about these kind of things – and I never did.”

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