Formula 1: 2020 Silly Season has the potential to be wild

By Asher Fair | Jul 8, 2019

Formula 1, F1, Red Bull Ring, Austria, Austrian Grand Prix (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /

From the 2018 Formula 1 season to the 2019 season, only eight drivers stayed put. But the 2020 Silly Season has the potential to be even more wild.

Eight of the 20 drivers who competed in Formula 1 last season stayed at the same teams from the 2018 season to the 2019 season. Of the other 12, six returned to the series driving for different teams while six left the series. Six other drivers entered the series, including three who had previously competed in it and three rookies.

That made for quite an interesting Silly Season as it pertained to all of the various rumors pertaining to different drivers, teams, replacement scenarios, etc.

Silly Season really starts and stops with the sport’s three top-tier teams, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.

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These three teams are the only three teams that have won any of the last 127 races going back to the early in the 2013 season, so which six drivers end up driving for which of these three teams is always key to each season.

However, depending on which drivers land deals with these teams typically tends to influence who some of the mid-pack teams such as McLaren and Renault are able to sign, and that can prompt driver movement throughout the rest of the field.

All things considered, even after the crazy 2019 Silly Season, the 2020 Silly Season has the potential to be the wildest one in quite some time, in large part because four of the six Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing drivers are at the center of it.

We know two things: Lewis Hamilton has a contract with Mercedes through the 2020 season, and Charles Leclerc has a contract with Ferrari through at least the 2022 season.

Beyond that, it’s anybody’s guess.

Sebastian Vettel’s contract with Ferrari does not expire until the end of the 2020 season, but there have been recent retirement rumors about the 32-year-old German based on things that the he himself has hinted, as well as rumors that he may trigger clauses in his contract to potentially sign with another team. There is no guarantee that he will be back for a sixth consecutive season driving for the Italian team next year.

Max Verstappen’s contract with Red Bull Racing also does not expire until the end of the 2020 season, but this contract contains a competition clause that allows the 21-year-old Dutchman to seek other options under certain conditions. This clause was recently confirmed by his manager, but details of it were not revealed.

Considering the fact that this year’s championship is all but out of reach for Verstappen even though Red Bull Racing have clearly taken a step forward with their new Honda engines after switching from Renault ahead of the 2019 season, he could very well stick with the team in the hope that they continue to improve significantly enough to become true championship contenders, or he could very well leave the team after less than four full seasons.

Valtteri Bottas’s contract with Mercedes expires at the end of the 2019 season. The team have the option to renew this contract for another season, but there has been nothing said yet about whether or not they will. He signed a one-year contract extension in July of 2018, so only time will tell with the second week of July of 2019 upon us.

Finally, Pierre Gasly has been on the hot seat at Red Bull Racing ever since he arrived. His struggles in his first season driving for the team have been abundant, and it is hard to see him returning to the Milton Keynes-based team next season.

In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him no longer driving for the team before the 2019 season ends. Another season driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, effectively the Red Bull Racing junior team, could do him a world of good.

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How will 2020 Formula 1 Silly Season turn out? Which six drivers will driver for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing by the time the 2020 season rolls around, and how will that impact the driver lineups of the other seven teams on the grid? The 2019 season has not yet hit its halfway mark, so Silly Season has yet to truly heat up, but once it starts to do so, don’t expect it to cool down for quite some time.

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