Formula 1: Win-win situation if Red Bull Racing retain Max Verstappen

Rumors have circulated that Max Verstappen will sign with Mercedes for the 2020 Formula 1 season. But it would be a win-win situation if Red Bull Racing retain him.

Ever since Red Bull Racing manager Helmut Marko stated that Max Verstappen has a performance clause in his contract that would allow him to leave the team after the 2019 Formula 1 season if they do not give him a car that is capable of winning the championship, there have been rumors that he will sign with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport.

Marko proceeded to further heat up these rumors by expressing concern over the possibility of the 21-year-old Dutchman not returning to the team next year despite the fact that the contract extension that he signed in October of 2017 does not expire until the end of the 2020 season.

The fact that Max’s father Jos, a former Formula 1 driver himself, retweeted an article containing a quote by Marko about the matter only intensified these rumors.

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Without revealing any specific details, Verstappen’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, confirmed that his current contract with the Milton Keynes-based team does contain a performance clause.

Mercedes are still the clear team to beat in Formula 1. They have won nine of the first 11 races on the 21-race 2019 schedule, and they are the five-time reigning champions as it pertains to both the driver standings and the constructor standings. Since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era in the 2014 season, they have won 83 of the 111 races that have been contested.

But it would be a win-win situation if Red Bull Racing re-sign Verstappen.

For Red Bull Racing, the benefits are obvious. Verstappen is a generational talent who is capable of winning multiple world championships, and the level at which he has performed ever since making a crucial mistake in practice for last year’s Monaco Grand Prix has been excellent. He is 107 points ahead (162 to 55) of teammate Pierre Gasly in the driver standings as things stand right now.

Excluding his two mechanical error-induced retirements in last year’s British Grand Prix and Hungarian Grand Prix, he has finished in the top five in 24 consecutive races. His streak officially sits at 20 consecutive top five finishes.

Entering this past weekend’s German Grand Prix, a wet and dry race during which Verstappen was the class of the field and still won by 7.333 seconds despite the fact that he spun out just before the halfway point as well as the fact that multiple safety car periods stripped him of even bigger leads, Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were both on 22-race top five streaks.

Hamilton finished this race in ninth place after dealing with all kinds of issues, many of which self-induced, while Bottas crashed and was officially scored in 15th. As a result, nobody other than Verstappen is on any kind of top five streak. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. has recorded two consecutive top six finishes; that’s it.

For Verstappen, the benefits are less obvious considering the fact that Red Bull Racing have been the third best team in Formula 1 over the last few seasons being Mercedes and Scuderia Ferrari and a move to Mercedes would make him an instant championship contender. However, they still exist.

In their first season using Honda engines after ending their 12-year partnership with Renault, Red Bull Racing have improved in terms or reliability and their overall speed. Both can be seen based on what Verstappen has done this season. His average finishing position through the season’s first 11 races is 3.45, and he has already tied his single-season career-high win total with two.

In addition to being in a class of his own in this past Sunday’s German Grand Prix, Verstappen overcame a horrible start and a 15-second deficit to race leader Charles Leclerc of Ferrari to win the Austrian Grand Prix at the end of June.

Had Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel not hit him in the British Grand Prix, Verstappen would be on a three-race streak of podium finishes, perhaps even a three-race streak of top two finishes, with two victories in this three-race span.

After winning the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen stated that “we are definitely catching them”, and that has been illustrated clearly ever since. Mercedes may still be Formula 1’s top team, but their lead is a lot slimmer than it had been, even to start the season.

So why would Verstappen want to leave? He has previously stated that he is committed to Red Bull Racing’s Honda project, and it has definitely gone well so far. Why try to fix what is not only not broken but what is clearly still improving, and at the expense of loyalty, no less?

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have the opportunity to ascend to a championship level in the very near future in Formula 1, and they are proving that they are well on their way to doing that week in and week out. It would be a win-win situation for both parties if the team retain him for the 2020 season, and if things continue to go as planned, it would be a win-win situation for both parties if they reach an additional long-term contract extension as well.