Formula 1: Red Bull Racing believe Max Verstappen will return in 2020
By Asher Fair
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner believes that Max Verstappen will return to the team for at least the 2020 Formula 1 season.
In October of 2017, Max Verstappen, who was in his second season and his first full season driving for Red Bull Racing at the time, signed a three-year contract extension to continue driving for the team through the 2020 Formula 1 season.
However, last month, Red Bull Racing manager Helmut Marko revealed that Verstappen’s contract with the team contains a performance clause that would allow him to seek other options once the 2019 season comes to a close if the team do not give him a car that is capable of winning this year’s championship.
This clause is particularly notable considering the fact that the 2019 season is the first season during which the Milton Keynes-based team have used Honda engines, as they ended their 12-year partnership with Renault following the conclusion of the 2018 season.
But while Verstappen has not won any of the season’s first four races and he has only finished on the podium in one of them despite the fact that he recorded five consecutive podium finishes to close out the 2018 season, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner is confident that the 21-year-old Dutchman will return to the team for the 2020 season and beyond.
Here is what Horner had to say about the matter, according to Autosport.
"“Max has a contract and it’s very clear what that position is. I’m totally confident that he’ll be here next year. We’re at race four and he’s 36 points behind [championship leader Valtteri Bottas]. There’s a long way to go in this championship and you just have to take things one race at a time. Three fourth positions in a row is getting a little bit boring now and I think we want to be fighting for the podium again.“Max selected another gear since last year’s Canadian Grand Prix. The way he drove from that point onwards has been hugely impressive. He had a run that came to end in Bahrain of six straight podiums. He also scored the second highest amount of points behind Lewis Hamilton in the second half of last season and he’s carried that form through the winter to the start of this year. We want to give him the tools that he can take the fight to the Ferraris and Mercedes.”"
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Verstappen started driving for Red Bull Racing at the age of 18 in the fifth race of the 2016 season, as he replaced the underperforming Daniil Kvyat ahead of that race after spending the 2015 season and the first four races of the 2016 season driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull Racing junior team.
Verstappen won his first race driving for Red Bull Racing, the Spanish Grand Prix, and he has earned four victories since then. In fact, he earned the first five victories of his career by an age when no other driver in Formula 1 history had even earned one victory.
Throughout the course of his Formula 1 career, Verstappen has competed in 85 races. He drove for Toro Rosso in the first 23 of these 85 races, and he has driven for Red Bull Racing in the other 62. He has recorded 23 podium finishes, all as a Red Bull Racing driver.
He has led 346 of the 4,370 laps that he has completed. He has completed 3,142 laps as a Red Bull Racing driver, and he has recorded all 346 of his laps led during his tenure driving for the team. His average career starting position is 7.4 and his average career finishing position is 8.1. He finished in a career-high fourth place in the driver standings in the 2018 season.
He currently sits in fourth place in the driver standings with 51 points thanks to one third place finish and three fourth place finishes.
Will Max Verstappen return to Red Bull Racing for the 2020 Formula 1 season, which would be his fifth overall season and fourth full season driving for the team, like Christian Horner expects him to, or will he seek other options once the 2019 season ends? Of the 21 races on the 2019 schedule, 17 have not yet been contested, so this question may not be answered definitively for quite some time.