Verstappen's huge F1 contract normal says Marko

Dr Helmut Marko has no regrets that Max Verstappen's new Red Bull contract could be the most lucrative in Formula 1 history.

Some believe the Dutchman is now being paid even more than seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

"I don't know if that's true, because I don't know Hamilton's contract," Marko told the Dutch publication Formule 1.

"But it seems normal to me that Max will earn more as world champion.

"I am proud of what Max has achieved," said the 78-year-old former F1 driver and now top Red Bull official in charge of the notorious driver program.

"It confirms that it was the right choice at the time to bring him to Formula 1. And it has also silenced all the scepticism that existed in the beginning."

Marko said coming to terms with Verstappen, his father and manager was straightforward. "We only had to change the years for the new contract," he revealed.

But he admitted he was also relieved when the 24-year-old Dutchman put pen to paper.

"A little, yes. In the long run, when we couldn't give him a championship car, I was afraid he might go somewhere else."

(GMM)