Max Verstappen admits talking to Aston Martin... but about GT3 drive.

Last month, a British tabloid claimed that Aston Martin had held talks with the Dutch driver, claiming a $1bn offer was on the table to lure him to the Silverstone-based outfit for the rest of his career.

Ignoring the money involved the deal made a certain amount of sense when one considers that Red Bull's design guru, Adrian Newey, has joined the British team, and the fact that Red Bull is not (currently) the powerhouse it used to be.

However, speaking to reporters, Verstappen has denied the story, insisting that though he has talked to Aston Martin it was in relation to a GT3 outing.

"It's a lot of money," he laughed. "Honestly, when I read that it was the first time that I saw something like that.

"The only contact that I had with them was about GT3 for this year," he added. "That's it. There's not much to say really because there isn't anything."

"I know you guys have all got column inches to fill over the winter period," added Christian Horner, who was the subject of many of those column inches last year, "but a billion-dollar driver deal, it would be an eye-wateringly large amount of money.

"But I think Max is very happy in the environment he's in," he continued. "He's grown up in the team and has a great relationship with the team and the engineers and the technicians and everyone he works with. It's down to us to provide a competitive car and continue to give him the platform to achieve the results he has over the last few years."

"We're really lucky," said Aston Martin team boss, Andy Cowell when asked about the story, "we've got Lance and Fernando... great experience and they're on long term contracts.

"The key work for this team is to create a fast race car," he added. "We didn't create that for them last year and they get a lot of media pressure because of that.

"The pressure should come in our direction. We've got the job to create a fast race car and I am absolutely certain they will both deliver."

For those familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm, reading the above quotes it's hard not to picture Andy Cowell having a Larry David moment as he weighs up Max on the one hand and Lance on the other. Cue music!