Verstappen signs ’multi-million dollar’ deal

Max Verstappen’s new personal sponsorship with Dutch beer Heineken is a "multi-million dollar deal", according to De Limburger newspaper.

Another Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf, said the new deal is for six years.

Correspondent Erik van Haren explained: "The deal itself is unique, because the brewer doesn’t normally work with individual athletes."

Back-to-back world champion Verstappen will wear significant ’Player 0.0’ branding on his helmet this year, signalling his involvement in a new Heineken gaming platform.

"Back in 2016, we never could have imagined that the sport would grow so much in a few years," said Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink, whose brand is already a global F1 sponsor.

"Max has contributed enormously to this," he said. "His impact is huge.

"Formula 1 was originally mainly a European thing, but is increasingly becoming a global sponsorship platform. Just look at the popularity in America."

Van den Brink said Heineken, to also work with Red Bull, would have directly sponsored Verstappen earlier, but "internal rules" dictated that the brand could only instigate a deal "once he was 25".