F1 pundit tips Max Verstappen to be the sport's first billionaire driver

F1 pundit Mark Gallagher believes Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is on his way to becoming the sport's first billionaire driver.

The two-time world champion is expected to win his third world championship in a row shortly and is without a doubt the best driver on the grid right now. Owing to his success, the Dutch driver has earned serious money since making his debut in the sport at the age of 17 in 2015.

He also added a significant amount to his earnings when he signed a long-term contract with Red Bull in 2021, which made him the highest-earning driver on the grid in terms of salary. Speaking with PlanetF1, Gallagher said:

“Regarding Max being potentially the first billion-dollar Formula 1 driver in terms of his career earnings, the reason I say that is because you really don’t need to sit in front of a calculator for very long to work out that, if he’s already been in Formula 1 since the age of 17, even if you put in a sort of relatively modest trajectory in terms of his salary, he’s already well into nine figures – hundreds of millions of dollars of income during his career to date.

“He’s got a very long way to go, potentially. He’s already made serious money, and he will make serious money over the balance of his Red Bull contract until 2028."

Former F1 driver impressed by Max Verstappen's progress on the grid

Former F1 driver Nick Heidfeld has been very impressed by the progress of Max Verstappen. Speaking with Sport1, The German claimed that the soon-to-be three-time world champion has an impressive quality of not repeating mistakes and learning from them.

He said:

“What surprised me even more positively; is that he has learned from his mistakes and has developed extremely. He is a complete Formula 1 driver.”

It Is simply impressive what Max Verstappen has been able to achieve in his relatively young career so far. It is almost certain that he will go past the mark of 50 race wins by the end of the 2023 season.

Since his contract with Red Bull expires at the end of 2028, the sky is the limit for Max Verstappen in terms of how many more records he will break by the end of his career.