Max Verstappen is the highest-paid driver in Formula 1 with an annual salary of almost £50million.

Virgil van Dijk and Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen has overtaken Virgil van Dijk in the Dutch rich list (Image: Getty)

Max Verstappen has jumped up the money rankings and surpassed the richest footballer in the Dutch football team, Virgil van Dijk. The Formula One star is the highest-paid driver on the grid right now, with an annual salary of almost £50million.

Dutch magazine Quote 500 has published their latest list of the richest people in the Netherlands, and Verstappen has risen thanks to his pay packet. He debuted on the net worth rankings in 2022, coming in dead last at No. 500. Now he’s almost halved that in 264th place, having earned a whopping £229m during his time in F1. This jump of almost 240 places has seen him leapfrog Liverpool star Van Dijk, who is the highest earner in the entire Dutch national team. Van Dijk is said to be worth around £123m, significantly less than his fellow Dutchman who is six years his junior. The richest person in the Netherlands is also a huge jump away from both Verstappen and Van Dijk with a net worth of £1.7billion.

This honour is reserved for Dutch media mogul John de Mol, who is best known for creating TV shows like Big Brother, The Voice and Deal or No Deal. Both athletes would have to work pretty hard to get to that level of rich, but Verstappen leads the list as the richest sportsman currently active.

The F1 star recently finished third at the Mexican Grand Prix last weekend as he tries to grip on to his world championship crown. Lando Norris leapfrogged McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in the standings, with just one point separating the two.

Meanwhile, Verstappen follows close behind, 36 points off the lead, but F1 pundit Martin Brundle believes the Dutchman should’ve faced a penalty during the race for not making an effort to stay on the track.

Max Verstappen.

Verstappen is the richest Dutch sportsperson right now (Image: Getty)

Discussing the incident where the 28-year-old went off at the start of the race, Sky Sports star Brundle said: “Max should have had a penalty, because if you put your car on the far-left and four abreast, it will go on the kerb.

“You can see Max actually accelerate – really skilful driving through the grass, I must say, but Max made no effort whatsoever to take Turns 1, 2 or 3. And that should have been a penalty.

“Max took the risk on the outside, knowing full well he could just bury the throttle and carry on. I might even have given somebody doing what Max did a drive-through, really as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness. Because then it all gets chaotic.”