Pierre Gasly quietly picks up the drivers’ dinner bill after Verstappen was teed up to pay
The end-of-season drivers’ dinner is usually a soft landing before the Abu Dhabi grind: 20 people who spend a year trying to beat each other, sitting down to laugh about it. This time, 17 of them made it. And when the age‑old question arrived — who’s paying? — the table pointed at Max Verstappen.
The unwritten rule says the World Champion gets the damage, but history suggests it’s more improv than tradition. Nico Rosberg famously pushed for an 18-way split in 2016, and Valtteri Bottas picked it up last year as a parting gesture. In 2025, the joke fell on Verstappen… until Pierre Gasly stole in with the card.
Speaking on Red Bull’s Talking Bulls podcast, Verstappen said he was ready to play along, but by the time the goodbyes started, Alpine’s Frenchman had already settled the account.
“The guys were joking it was my turn,” Verstappen said. “I was fine with it. I was across the room, having a laugh, having a gin and tonic, and then suddenly people started getting up. That’s when we realised Pierre had already paid.”
No bathroom-dash tactics, no ducking the waiter — just a timing issue, he insisted. “Next time I’ll tell the staff before I sit down that the bill’s on me, so I actually get to pay it. I’m usually pretty generous with these things. I just didn’t get the chance.”
Gasly, for his part, confirmed it with a dry “expensive” on Alpine’s channels — a line as French as it is final. If you’re wondering, yes, the missing three were Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Nico Hülkenberg. The rest squeezed in for the annual “class photo,” the one moment everyone drops the elbows and remembers they’re in a club of 20.
There’s always a light politics to this dinner. It’s equal parts therapy session and PR ceasefire — a snapshot of a grid that, despite bruises and barbs and the occasional sideways glance in parc fermé, still functions as a community. That’s why these little traditions matter. Who pays is less about money and more about mood.
Verstappen’s name being in the frame tracks, of course. Even when he’s not leading the news cycle on track, he tends to own the room off it. He didn’t this time, at least not at the till — but expect that to be corrected with interest. You can practically hear him pre-authorising a card for next year’s edition.
If you’re keeping score: Bottas covered 2024, Gasly 2025. Which means 2026 is open season. Maybe it lands back with the champion, maybe it’s a farewell flourish, maybe someone just gets there first. As Gasly proved, it pays to move early.
In the end, the bill story is a neat microcosm of the grid right now: competitive, yes, but surprisingly tight-knit, with the occasional plot twist. And while Verstappen didn’t get to flex his generosity this time, he did walk away with something else — a reminder that in a paddock obsessed with margins, even dinner can be decided by track position.
