Why would they want to change a winning team? I bet NO.
Well, it maybe that Jos' connection with Toto was exagerated on purpose and used to decide Red Bull in offering a long term contract with Max. That's the way I see it. Also, pretending that Mercedes was close to signing Max could do no harm to his prospect. Red Bull is a bad employer when it comes to paying its drivers, and the Mercedes rumours hopefully helped to extract a bit more money.
nope, the biggest reason Max went with Red Bull was because they could give him an F1 car immediately. Mercedes couldn't place Max in any F1 car yet and wanted to fund a year in F2 first. RBR pays Max very well...
I can hate who I want, and refer to anyone how I see fit. Only the mods here prevent us all describing other posters how we honestly feel about them. As you already well know, I think that Elton is a fast but dum driver, lucky to be driving the most dominant car of f1 EVER, and due to certain things about him, is a marketing stroke by Mercedes which means he was elevated far above his talent in his usefulness to corporate marketing. As a driver, he is far from the all round consummate professional of a Prost, Senna, Clark or Schumi, but his stats bring him into comparison with them, not his level of skill
Merc need a star driver to carry them forward if Lewis leaves. If Verstappen won't go to Mercedes it will be Vettel (Or Ric). That's the reason I think Bottas/Ocon is unlikely at best.
Red Bull declared to the FIA to pay 11.5M € to Max Verstappen for the 2019 season. By comparison, Renault pays 31M € to Daniel Ricciardo for the same period. So claiming that "RBR pays Max very well" is a bit exagerated, IMO. Red Bull never paid well its drivers compared to other teams.
Red Bull's bonus structure is the highest in F1 as far as I know. And keep in mind that Ricciardo is a far older driver and had to be paid extra for the risk to leave a faster team. Million euro bonus + bump for each win. They even pay that if they lose the race for you (see Ricciardo 2016 for example)
Before Ricciardo came, Renault didn't have a proven GP winner !!! Hulkenberg, Palmer and Sainz couldn't command the same retainer. I must say that if Renault doesn't improve drastically, Ricciardo should look for another team for 2021.
The figures given by FIA are different for 2019. 1. Hamilton 46M € 2. Vettel 35M € 3. Ricciardo 31M € 4. Verstappen 11.5M € RB 5. Bottas 7.5M € 6. Raikkonen 4M € 7. Hulkenberg 4M 8. Sainz 3.5M € 9. Leclerc 2.9M € 10. Perez 2.9M 11. Grosjean 1.6M € 12. Gasly 1.15M € RB 13. Magnussen 1M € 14. Stroll 1M € 15. Kubica 0.5M € 16. Kvyat 0.27M € TR 17. Norris 0.23M € 18. Giovonazzi 0.2M € 19. Russel 0.16M € 20. Albon 0.15M € TR
But RBR was paying better then the other teams so your point that RBR doesn't pay well is wrong. RBR was paying Vettel the same money as Ferrari. Ricci had just jumped from the jnr team so he wasn't getting much and his performance over the years now makes him a top earner. Image Unavailable, Please Login
If you look at the drivers in my list Massa is still there My point is that RBR pays well over the years not just "2019" which has a 21 year old and a rookie.
5. Pay very high per point scored also. And look at what speedy posted, the only reason they pay Ricciardo so much was to entice him away.
