Formula 1: Charles Leclerc vs. Max Verstappen confirmed for many years

Two drivers are under contract for at least another four Formula 1 seasons. Those two drivers? Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, two rising stars, proven winners and potential world champions.

Entering the offseason between the 2019 and 2020 Formula 1 seasons, just three drivers were under contract for beyond the 2020 season.

Sergio Perez signed a three-year contract extension in August to remain with Racing Point through the 2022 season while Esteban Ocon‘s initial deal with Renault, which begins in 2020, runs through the 2021 season.

Additionally, Williams confirmed that George Russell is under contract with the team through the 2021 season, although that admittedly could change given his status as a Mercedes junior driver, should one or both of the Mercedes drivers leave the team after 2020.

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Throughout the several weeks of the offseason, only two more drivers have signed contract extensions.

But the fact that those two drivers are who they are has given Formula 1 the solidification of a potential future rivalry, one that was speculated as early as late 2017 before one of these two drivers even began competing in Formula 1.

Charles Leclerc signed with Ferrari ahead of the 2019 season, and he was known to be under contract through 2020; in fact, his initial deal was believed to run through 2022. In late December, just over three weeks after the season ended, he signed a deal to remain with Ferrari through at least the 2024 season.

Just over two weeks later, Max Verstappen, who was set to compete in 2020 on the third year of a three-year contract extension he signed back in October of 2017, signed another three-year extension with Red Bull Racing to remain with the team through the 2023 season.

Now the drivers with the two longest contracts are two 22-year-old rising stars, proven winners and potential world champions at two of the only teams that have won any races in the last seven years.

This could be a great rivalry for years to come, and we already saw signs of it in 2019.

Verstappen has been in Formula 1 since he was 17 years old in 2015, and he was promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing four races into the 2016 season. He won in his first start driving for the Milton Keynes-based team in the Spanish Grand Prix in May of 2016, and he has driven for the team ever since and won several races along the way.

Verstappen had five wins by the time he turned 21 years old. No other driver in Formula 1 history had ever even won one race by his or her 21st birthday. He has been victorious in each of his first four seasons with Red Bull Racing.

He is coming off a season in which he recorded a career-high three victories and finished in a career-high third place finish in the driver standings, and he finished behind only Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in both categories, two drivers whose contracts are both up after 2020. Additionally, Hamilton is 35 years old and Bottas is 30.

Leclerc has been in Formula 1 since 2018 when he drove for Alfa Romeo Sauber, but he had already been considered a potential replacement candidate for Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari in 2019. Indeed, that is exactly what he became, and early struggles and misfortune were met with plenty of success down the road in his first season.

He got his first win in the Belgian Grand Prix in September of 2019, and he followed that up by becoming the first Ferrari driver to win the team’s home race, the Italian Grand Prix, since Fernando Alonso won it in 2010 just one week later.

Despite the misfortune that cost him another two to three victories throughout the season, he still finished in fourth place in the driver standings and became the first Ferrari driver to finish ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel in wins or in points (and he did both) since Vettel arrived at the team ahead of the 2015 season.

These two drivers are poised to battle for world championships for many years down the road. And now they’re more than poised; they’re locked in to their current teams, Verstappen for at least four more years and Leclerc for at least five.

Remember their battle in the Austrian Grand Prix? How about a few weeks later in the British Grand Prix? Now imagine the same battles not only in a more competitive era in Formula 1 from 2021 with Liberty Media’s new rules and regulations slated to go into effect and new cars set to be used, but for the top spot in the driver standings.

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Who will become Formula 1 world champion first, Charles Leclerc or Max Verstappen? Regardless, both should have plenty of opportunities to beat the other over the next few years, and more than likely, both will come out on top plenty of times.

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