Max Verstappen must pay a fee more than £250,000 greater than anyone else on the grid to compete in Formula 1 over the coming year.
The Dutchman will go into the 2023 season as defending champion again, having successfully kept hold of his crown last year. Not only did he do that, but he broke a handful of records on the way to one of the most dominant title-winning seasons the sport has ever seen.
Not only did Verstappen make sure of the championship with four races still to go, he was 146 points ahead of his nearest competitor Charles Leclerc. His total of 454 points broke the record for the most earned by any one driver during a single season.
But the extend of his domination will cost him this winter – literally. As a result of the huge number of points he earned during the 2022 season, Verstappen must now fork out a premium to get involved in the action again this year.
That is because of the way the current F1 entry fee system works. Each driver must pay an amount to the FIA which varies – everyone is on the hook for a flat registration fee of £9,148, but on top of that they must pay an extra £1,847 for every point they received in the previous season.
That's great news for the three drivers entering the sport this year. Nico Hulkenberg has raced before but hasn't scored a point since he last held a regular seat in 2019, while Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant are rookies. All three of them will pay the basic entry fee only.
But everyone else will have to spend more, with Verstappen contributing the most cash. Given how many points he scored last year, the Dutchman must pay £847,809 to enter the 2023 championship. Leclerc, the nearest to him, will pay £578,066.
Lewis Hamilton had his least successful F1 season ever last year, but the silver lining is he will pay less to enter the upcoming season. His entry fee will be £452,524, while team-mate George Russell and Red Bull driver Sergio Perez will pay more than half a million each.
Teams also pay an entry fee and Verstappen's Red Bull team are in a similar boat when it comes to the cost of their own participation. Their fee is believed to be around £5m, which is the largest the sport has ever seen and is a figure team principal Christian Horner described as "incredible".
