Formula 1: Red Bull Racing confident Max Verstappen will return in 2020

Red Bull Racing are confident that Max Verstappen will return for what would be his fifth consecutive Formula 1 season driving for the team in 2020.

Rumors have been circulating for most of the 2019 Formula 1 season thus far that Max Verstappen may be on his way to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport to replace Valtteri Bottas after the 2019 season, his fourth consecutive season driving for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, comes to an end. Bottas’s current contract expires at the end of the 2019 season.

Such speculation heated up in early April when Red Bull Racing manager Helmut Marko revealed that Verstappen’s current contract, a three-year contract through the 2020 season, with the team contains a performance clause that would allow him to leave the team after the 2019 season if the team do not give him a car capable of winning this year’s championship.

The 2019 season is Red Bull Racing’s first season using Honda engines after terminating their 12-year relationship with Renault after the 2018 season, so their performance this season is particularly notable.

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Marko also revealed that Jos Verstappen, Max’s father and a former Formula 1 driver himself, and Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff talk regularly and that Wolff calls both Jos and Max regularly.

While both Verstappens and Wolff laughed off these rumors, they heated up again last month when Jos retweeted an article sharing more of Marko’s concerns about being able to retain Verstappen past the conclusion of the 2019 season.

But after Verstappen was the class of the field in this past Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, the home track for the Milton Keynes-based team, Red Bull Racing are confident that he will be back with the team next year.

Here is what Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“The contract between the driver and team will always be confidential, but it’s safe to say that every single driver in this pit lane has got probably clauses in their contract. There has been speculation about Max’s contract, it’s purely speculation. He’s very happy in the team, he believes in this project and days like today only endorse that. I have no doubts about Max.”"

Verstappen confirmed such confidentiality when asked if he could reveal the exact details of the clause that Marko previously referenced.

"“What do you think, my friend?”"

When four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel drove for Red Bull Racing, he utilized clauses in his contract to leave the team and sign with Scuderia Ferrari after the 2014 season despite the fact that his contract with Red Bull Racing ran through the 2015 season.

Through the first nine races of the 2019 season and through the first nine races of Red Bull Racing’s stint with Honda, Verstappen has yet to finish outside of the top five, and he has recorded an average finishing position of 3.56 with three podium finishes and one victory.

The 21-year-old Dutchman sits in third place in the driver standings behind only the two Mercedes drivers amid what has been by far his best start to a season throughout his five-year Formula 1 career.

This question has been asked several times before, but with Silly Season starting to heat up, where will Max Verstappen end up in the 2020 Formula 1 season? Will he continue driving for Red Bull Racing, or will he leave the team to drive for Mercedes?