Max Verstappen got behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, but not an F1 car, at Paul Ricard, in an outing which the four-time World Champion recently hinted at.

That came after he moved to shut down speculation that the manufacturer had tabled a staggering offer worth $1billion in a bid to bring him to their F1 team.

Max Verstappen tests Aston Martin GT3

It was over the winter break that this rumour emerged in the Daily Mail, at a time when Aston Martin is continuing to build for the new era of chassis and engines to come from F1 2026.

With their new campus and wind tunnel up and running, F1 design legend Adrian Newey arriving at the start of March and a Honda engine deal secured from F1 2026, the Aston Martin project is an intriguing one, with the claim emerging that Verstappen was next on the list, a contract worth a billion dollars on the table to try to lure him away from Red Bull.

It was a claim branded very much wide of the mark by Aston Martin, with a spokesperson telling PlanetF1.com in a statement: “An Aston Martin Aramco spokesperson categorically denied the story”.

Also hushing that noise at the recent F1 75 event, Verstappen revealed “the only contact” that he’d had with Aston Martin was about “GT3 for this year. That’s it.”

And this was recently put into action with Verstappen spotted at the wheel of such a car.

🔥 Max Verstappen, Aston Martin GT3 aracını test etti.
pic.twitter.com/6Cr7ylPC8S

— Formula Türkiye 🇹🇷 (@FormulaTurkiye) February 22, 2025

Footage emerged of Verstappen at the wheel of a Red Bull/Verstappen.com-liveried Aston Martin GT3 at Circuit Paul Ricard, the former home of Formula 1’s French Grand Prix.

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Verstappen has revealed that he wishes to launch his GT3 team in 2025, the initial stages of that process by the looks of it now in action.

Discussing his goal in a Formule 1 magazine interview, Verstappen, an avid racer on the virtual scene also, had said: “It all started with Team Redline in sim racing.

“With Verstappen.com Racing we are sponsoring and supporting various racing activities from people close to me.

“We are also active in DTM and the GTWC Sprint with Thierry Vermeulen [son of Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen] and with my father [Jos] in rallying, but the end goal is to put together our own race team.

“The first step in our own GT3 team and then we’ll see where we end up. It would be nice to be able to grow to the highest level in endurance racing.

“We are working on it at the moment. Next year will be tight, but I would like to have it as soon as possible. Having a GT3 team in 2025 with a minimum of two cars should be possible.”

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