Triple world champion Niki Lauda has suggested Max Verstappen may have tricked Red Bull into giving him a higher salary as part of his new contract by falsely claiming Mercedes had sent him an offer.
In October, the Dutchman signed a new extension with the Milton Keynes outfit reportedly worth around $30m a year to keep him there until 2020, at the same time it ended speculation that perhaps the other top teams were watching the 20-year-old as he became frustrated by the lack of competitiveness.
The Austrian Formula 1 legend is currently the Non-Executive Chairman at the Brackley-based team and revealed that, contrary to the rumours, no such approach had been made to Verstappen about a future drive.
“We never made a proposal to Max,” Lauda told Servus TV. “I have a good relationship with Helmut Marko as we often talk and fly together. Today we talked about Verstappen and I told him that they could have saved a lot of money since we never entered negotiations with him.”
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Commenting on the three-time Grand Prix winner’s new contract, the Red Bull advisor had no problem with the pay rise Verstappen received and instead highlighted the commitment he had shown to the team.
“We shared with him our plans for the future, guaranteeing that by 2020 we will have the best people and good options for the engine,” Marko said. “We went to the Honda base in Sakura and the infrastructure is incredible. This convinced him.
“He took advantage of the situation to get a raise in his money, but on this matter, he is far from Vettel and Hamilton,” he added. “If he can win titles he will approach them, but we have good prize money on top of a low base salary.”
