While Max Verstappen was always destined to succeed given his superior racing prowess, the last two years have shown what he is really capable of. All his talent and natural ability helped him land a lucrative sponsor in the Dutch supermarket chain, Jumbo, in 2016. That was the year Red Bull promoted him from Toro Rosso to the senior team just after his rookie season. Now that the Dutchman’s stocks are higher than ever, the sponsor has decided to continue funding him, despite a major change in strategy recently.

Ever since stepping foot in F1, Verstappen has amassed quite a handsome sum of money. As per LadBible, Red Bull’s golden boy’s worth as of July 2022 was around $200 million. That number surely must have soared higher, given his unprecedented success in the 2022 season. That being said, it is as important for a driver to have a stable sponsor as it is for the sponsor to cash in on his popularity.

Jumbo to continue sponsoring Max Verstappen despite money laundering allegations

Frits van Eerd stepped down from his role as the CEO of Jumbo in September last year. The decision came after his arrest following the allegations of money laundering. His interim successor, Ton van Veen, denied any such allegations against the company. Ton also revealed the company’s decision to stop all its sponsorships, with an exception for Verstappen, the athlete they are associated with since 2016.

As per SI, in the company’s annual report, he explained, “This also has consequences for our sponsorship. We will no longer continue with that. We will also take a critical look at our activities in motorsport.”

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“An exception to this is the contract with Max Verstappen.”

Max’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen reacted to the developments as well. Speaking with the Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad in September, Vermeulen said, “Caution is in order here. We are waiting for the facts to be on the table. We have been in contact with Jumbo and the management and marketing will continue as usual.”

He added, “We have agreements with Jumbo, and the supermarket is not part of the investigation. That was clearly stated.”.

“Let’s be careful with all kinds of suggestive things and wait for the facts to come out.”

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Jumbo’s commitment came at a point when F1 teams like AlphaTauri, Mercedes, and Ferrari were losing sponsors. Most teams, including the ones already mentioned, lost sponsors because of the slump in the cryptocurrency market.

Verstappen’s cash-rich endorsements

Apart from Jumbo, Max has quite a list when it comes to endorsements. It includes the Dutch sports television channel, Ziggo, luxury watch brand, Tag Heuer, online car marketplace CarNext, streaming service, Viaplay, and of course, Red Bull.

Ziggo

Ziggo is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands, offering a slew of services including cable TV, internet, and telephone service. Owing to the endorsement deal, we have often seen Verstappen give exclusive interviews on Ziggo’s sports channel in the past.

Starting the relationship with the company, Max was quoted by Sportspromedia as saying, “I notice that there is growing enthusiasm around motorsport and Formula One in the Netherlands. As an ambassador for sports in the Netherlands, I would like to help to bring the sport to the attention of even more people. The channels and the power that Ziggo offers make Ziggo the ideal partner for that.”

Max signed a three-year deal with the company in 2018. At the time of writing this article, we did not come across any report that suggests the two parties have signed a new deal.

Tag Heuer

Like many fellow F1 drivers on the grid, Max has an endorsement deal with a luxury watch brand as well. That brand is Tag Heuer. In fact, the brand is one of the main sponsors for the whole of Red Bull Racing.

Tag Heuer’s sponsorship deal with Red Bull started back in 2016 and since then, Verstappen has curated quite a collection of its best watches since then. Brand’s CEO Frédéric Arnault, in an interview with GQ in December 2021, described their Monaco Titan Special Edition Chronograph as Max’s “lucky charm”.

Viaplay

Another logo that features on the expensive real estate of Max Verstappen’s helmets is that of Viaplay. The streaming service got a place on crash helmets starting from the 2022 Singapore GP. Starting 2023 season, it will also feature on the peak of Verstappen’s official F1 cap.

Max also featured in their documentaries called ‘Verstappen – Lion Unleashed’ and ‘Master of the Track’. Speaking last year after extending the partnership, the Dutchman was quoted by news.cision.com as saying, “I am delighted to have extended my partnership with Viaplay. So far, working together has been very enjoyable and I am looking forward to creating more high-quality content together for all the Formula 1 fans. As we all know, streaming is the new way of broadcasting and I feel Viaplay is doing a great job at shaping this future.”

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While these big-money companies have invested insane amounts in Red Bull’s young gun, he has more than done his part in the last two years to show his worth. This is surely not the time to pull back for them.