Why F1's most exciting driver has committed to Red Bull

"I am very happy at the moment where I am because I think it's a very exciting project. Everybody is looking in the same direction, everybody wants the same thing - everybody wants to win, everybody in the team are winners. You can feel that mentality is there. I think the team is definitely coming on very strong."

When Max Verstappen spoke these words to us in late August, 2019, it seemed like the sort of carefully considered banality you would expect any contracted Formula 1 driver to say about their current team. At the time, speculation Max would refuse to see out the final year of his Red Bull contract and make a sensational switch to Mercedes had just been quashed by Toto Wolff's decision to retain Valtteri Bottas and farm Esteban Ocon out to Renault. Max would be staying put after all.

Red Bull had been on this rodeo before, of course, offering Verstappen a highly lucrative contract - understood to have made him then the third-highest-paid driver in F1 - at the back end of 2017 to ward off supposed interest from Mercedes. The late Niki Lauda even poked fun at fellow Austrian Helmut Marko in a subsequent TV interview, suggesting playfully that Red Bull had rushed into agreeing new terms out of fear of losing Verstappen, even though Mercedes had "never offered him a contract" and "never talked to him about money".

The arrangement made back then was effectively a one-year contract extension, tying Verstappen down until the end of 2020 - performance clauses notwithstanding. Given the uncertainty surrounding F1's 2021 future at that time, it made sense not to go beyond this point. Heading into 2020, with F1's future direction now set and teams negotiating new commercial terms with Liberty Media, we expected Max Verstappen to once again play a major role in F1's perennial driver market 'silly season'.

Except this time he and Red Bull caught everyone on the hop by announcing in early January that they'd agreed another contract extension, set to keep Max where he is until at least the end of 2023. In an instant, one of the major potential storylines of 2020 - would Max stay or go - was shut down.

The timing seemed highly unusual, on all sides. Why now? Why not leave this business until the summer, when you have a better idea of whether this year's promises have been kept or broken, whether your current team is in good shape for the forthcoming major 2021 rule changes, and what other opportunities may be available if you feel the need to jump ship? Max has eschewed all of that, despite wielding serious power in the driver market ever since he burst onto the scene at the end of 2014, after Red Bull promised him immediate graduation from F3 to F1 to beat Mercedes to his signature.

"Max really believes in the team; we very much believe in him. That extension was very, very straightforward. It's one of the most straightforward [negotiations] I've ever had - in a relatively short time frame Red Bull team boss Christian Horner

With the new season fast approaching, Max addressed the media at a special press event at Red Bull's London HQ near Covent Garden, organised in advance of winter testing. There he spoke again of how comfortable he feels in this team, that doing this deal now "takes away any doubt" and prevents any potential awkwardness emerging once the season is up and running. Put simply, he doesn't need the distraction. Again, he emphasised his contentment with the environment around him, and the hunger for success he perceives in Red Bull's people.

For Red Bull, the upsides are obvious: the team has locked down one of F1's three biggest current talents to a long-term contract, mitigating the risk of exposure to Max having
 his head turned in the coming months by potential suitors. Ferrari tied Charles Leclerc down until the end of 2024 not long before Red Bull announced Max's new contract; Lewis Hamilton is widely tipped to sign an extension with Mercedes but, should those talks break down irrevocably for whatever reason, you can bet Verstappen's name would have been at the top of Toto Wolff's shopping list.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner spoke of the "energy that injected to the whole factory" when the staff returned to work after Christmas to news of Verstappen's fresh commitment, and how it would allow his team to focus on beating Ferrari and Mercedes without the potential distraction of speculation about Max's future.

"There was a desire from both sides to get the deal done early," says Horner when quizzed separately by GP Racing about the timing of the announcement. "There was a confidence level in both sides: Max believes very much in the environment we've created and the people that we have within the team.

"Max and his management team have always been very straightforward and easy to deal with. The upside to it was just getting that speculation out of the way early, and going into the year with everybody knowing this is a longer-term project than just the 12-month scenario - particularly [with] the big rule change coming in 2021 as well.

"Max really believes in the team; we very much believe in him. That extension was very, very straightforward. It's one of the most straightforward [negotiations] I've ever had -
 in a relatively short time frame. It took everybody by surprise, but it was an early good, New Year surprise and bonus for everybody, and it just puts more injection [of momentum] into 
it - that Max believes in us, we believe in ourselves, that we can really take this fight, hopefully, to Mercedes."

Horner says Red Bull was "not really" ever that concerned Max would have his head turned by rival outfits, and that this new deal leaves Lewis Hamilton as "the last of the primary drivers to be out of contract" at the time of writing. Verstappen is perennially linked to Mercedes, of course, but recent comments from Toto Wolff about his team's future commitment to F1, coupled with a major new sponsor deal with Ineos that runs well beyond 2021, all point to Lewis remaining in post - even if the precise details still need to be hammered out. Toto has pledged to make this negotiation his "number one priority".

Jos revealed Max had a clause in his previous contract that "has to do with position" in the world championship, which kept his son at Red Bull for 2020 at least

"His [Hamilton's] options are now somewhat limited," adds Horner. "Does that put him in a stronger position with Mercedes or Mercedes in a strong position? Who knows? It's none of our business. [I'm just] glad that we're not in that scenario."

Although Wolff is a long-term admirer of Max's driving, and an old friend of Max's father and co-manager Jos, there is also some doubt Toto would want to pair Verstappen with Lewis and risk re-igniting the sorts of fireworks that made managing Mercedes so stressful when 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg was at the team. It would be a lot of fun for F1 fans, but probably not so much for Toto...

"Financially, it will be very difficult as well," says Jos when GP Racing checks in with the former Benetton, Tyrrell and Arrows F1 driver to find out more about why the Verstappen
clan has chosen to nail its colours so emphatically to the Red Bull mast. "The outside world would have loved that, but... probably it is not a good idea..."

Jos reveals that Max had a clause in his previous contract that "has to do with position" in the world championship, which kept his son at Red Bull for 2020 at least. We can safely assume this was triggered when Max entered last season's August summer break sitting inside the top three in the standings.

"But then I must say Max always wanted to stay," Jos adds. "He has a very good feeling with the team. I think this is the most important thing. Max also has the last word on [the] decision. But he feels very comfortable with Red Bull - he's settling in very well. Also the 
first year when [Daniel] Ricciardo left, I think Max took it on very well. The car was difficult to drive but Max could manage it - and also the way he handled things, he's getting more
and more professional.

"But then, he always had a good feeling. He's very close with Helmut [Marko] - Helmut likes him, Max likes Helmut - it's always been like that. Helmut is a big fan of Max. I think he
 is the kind of driver Helmut likes. Also, the way Max is - straightforward - I think Helmut is 
a bit like that.

"During the end of the year we were discussing the options - you want to be in a top team [Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull], we were not thinking about the others. The position Max has in the team where he is now, to create that somewhere else I think takes a couple of years. Red Bull has shown that it can do it [win championships] and now with the rules [staying] the same this year it will be a very important year for them. And also with Honda... Max and Honda really work [well] together. And I think it's a bit like, you know, he wants to show them that he can do it with Red Bull and Honda, together.

"Maybe there were some options in another team," Jos continues. "But I think the time is not there yet. With the rule change for 2021 I think it's a gamble. It doesn't say if you go to another team that you're going to win, because maybe Red Bull is gonna create something very special. All in all, that's why we decided to stay."

In terms of reading the market, Jos also thinks Hamilton "will continue two more
 years with Mercedes", which naturally limits Max's options when you consider Leclerc's
 own new long-term contract with Ferrari and the fact Max is on record saying "you shouldn't have two potential number ones driving next to each other". He and Red Bull already know the pitfalls of this approach, from the explosive start to Verstappen's final season paired with Ricciardo in 2018...

Talk of Ricciardo is apt. The Australian made a highly lucrative decision to leave Red Bull for Renault at the end of 2018. Information pertaining to a recent legal dispute with his former manager Glenn Beavis, now settled out of court, suggests Ricciardo is earning more than £20million per year at the French team. Verstappen's new contract was reported as being worth $16million per season (£12.4million), but Jos says that figure is "not correct".

"I tell you Max is very, very well paid - top two, top three," Jos says. "The Ricciardo deal is less than us... It's definitely good. Max is very highly rated by Helmut. Max is for sure a
top-paid driver."

Maybe not as well paid as Lewis...

"I don't know how much Lewis gets."

Reports put Hamilton's figure at around £40million per season.

"OK... I only can tell you we have done well..."

The other interesting element of Max's deal is that it runs two seasons beyond Honda's presently confirmed commitment to F1. The Verstappens are sworn to secrecy on whether Max has a clause in his new contract that allows him to leave Red Bull if Honda walks away from F1, though some parts of the media have reported this to be the case.

Red Bull is naturally looking towards a title challenge this season, after a promising first campaign paired with Honda in 2019. The team started slowly last year but is better prepared heading into 2020

"We agreed not to talk about it," says Jos.
"We know what it is in there and that's important between us and the team."

However, Jos does hint at the possibility Max's fresh commitment to the Red Bull-Honda project may help persuade any wavering Honda executives, given the deep developing respect the Japanese manufacturer holds for Verstappen's key role in making Honda successful again in F1.

"We can stay until 2023 - that's important," Jos explains. "And we hope that Honda is going to continue - and maybe with this deal it gives them also the trust and the faith to continue until that point. It will help, I think. Honda gave an interview [about] how much they like Max, and I think that only helps to keep them with Red Bull."

Red Bull is naturally looking towards a title challenge this season, after a promising first campaign paired with Honda in 2019. The team started slowly last year but is better prepared heading into 2020, and winter running on Honda's Sakura engine dynos has given everyone further encouragement.

Of course, it's easy to be optimistic when the first qualifying session of the season has yet to deal a cold hard blow of reality to everyone's competitive dreams, but Verstappen signing on the dotted line so early, and for so long, is a genuine statement of belief in the future of the Red Bull-Honda project and what Horner calls the "phenomenal turnaround" Honda has made since splitting with McLaren.

The pressure will surely come if the 2020 package is not within the two-tenths-of-a-second margin Max has identified as a deficit he can work with against Mercedes and Ferrari - but at least all parties can now focus on their work without the looming distraction of mid-season contract negotiations.

"There's no point doing that during the season because it only makes life harder," Jos adds. "As soon as a driver leaves the team, or when they think they're gonna leave, they're hiding things... Now it's all there [the open commitment] to keep working hard together. This is good. We are in a fantastic place. Max is happy. And this is the most important thing."