The contenders for a 2020 Toro Rosso seat

Soaring highs can hide deeper troubles. The Austrian Grand Prix was Red Bull's greatest moment of the 2019 Formula 1 season so far, as Max Verstappen gave the team its first victory with new engine partner Honda.

But seven seconds or so after Verstappen crossed the line, the euphoria was followed by a tinge of concern.

Despite being ahead of Verstappen on the opening tour, Pierre Gasly finished a lapped seventh in the second Red Bull. That has only intensified speculation about the Frenchman's future. Especially as Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost has said Red Bull would not lose any face if it promoted Daniil Kvyat to the senior team for a second time - despite previously demoting him back to the junior team, then axing him from the programme completely, then re-signing him to Toro Rosso for a third spell this year.

At the same time as Gasly's future is under threat, and a possible seat at Toro Rosso is up for grabs in 2020, Red Bull's junior programme is in major flux.

Dan Ticktum was dropped last week following the latest disappointing result in his Super Formula campaign and Patricio O'Ward was parachuted into Formula 2 at the last minute for a one-off, and will also take over Ticktum's Super Formula drive.

There are other options in Red Bull's ranks, and through its Honda affiliation too. But most do not have a particularly stonewall case for being thrown into F1 next season, let alone have a superlicence to do so. It's a problem that has plagued recent years for Red Bull, as its flow of mega talent has stemmed slightly.

But if Kvyat gets the recall to end all recalls, who could replace him at Toro Rosso? Autosport assesses the current contenders.

The underperformer

Name Pierre Gasly
Age 23
From Rouen, France
Current championship position 6th in Formula 1
Superlicence points N/A

It is bad enough that Gasly was last of the big three teams on the day his team-mate won in Austria (he also finished behind a McLaren). Even more troubling is that it was the third race in a row he has been lapped.

Gasly's season seems to be getting worse, not better. The final result he recorded when his Red Bull Ring weekend had started quite promisingly will sting even more. Confusingly, there is little sign of Gasly understanding why he is struggling so much, let alone being able to solve it.

The pressure on Gasly is enormous and though there are no plans to drop him in the short-term, on this form it seems like Red Bull has no choice but to cut him loose at the end of the year.

Kvyat is living proof that Red Bull is not afraid to give a driver a second chance. His time away at Ferrari supposedly matured the Russian, and he does seem to have returned to Toro Rosso this year with better focus and form than when he toiled there after losing his Red Bull seat in early 2016.

Gasly must do something, anything, to prove to Red Bull that there is still a spark to ignite. He's not even managed to replicate his best result with Toro Rosso this season in a car that's now won a race and scored two other podiums with Verstappen. In some ways, Gasly looks a worse driver than he did 12 months ago as a rookie.

Without a breakthrough of some kind, Red Bull may take the view that there is little for Toro Rosso to work with next year. That would almost certainly spell the end of Gasly's F1 career.

Scott Mitchell

The new Kvyat?

Name Juri Vips
Age 18
From Talinn, Estonia
Current championship position 3rd in FIA Formula 3
Superlicence points 27

Estonian Juri Vips may lack a headline championship win in his career so far, but he has the highest number of superlicence points of actual Red Bull juniors on this list. He could be the man to replicate Kvyat's GP3-to-F1 ascension, as Vips is competing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship that replaced GP3 for this year.

To make that F1 breakthrough, he'll have to at least maintain his third place in the F3 championship to score the magic 40 points for a superlicence.

With the famous Red Bull livery on his Hitech car, Vips won at the company's home circuit last weekend in front of Helmut Marko, and did so in a week where another Red Bull junior had previously stolen the limelight, 'Pato' O'Ward.

An F3-to-F1 move for Vips could work well as it did for Kvyat, if Vips is then given enough time to grow and adapt

When asked about how important his win was given the O'Ward news in the build-up to the weekend, and if he has a genuine chance of making it to F1 next year, Vips says: "Obviously I look at all of this stuff as it's extremely important for my career, but ultimately Helmut will decide all of this stuff.

"I don't know so much about this O'Ward, I haven't followed so much in the Americas, but I heard he's a very fast driver. Everything will depend on the rest of the season and how Gasly, Kvyat and [Alex] Albon are doing. There are a lot of factors."

He is right on that front, but ultimately all any of these hopefuls can do is dominate or at least impress in their respective championships, and prove they are fast enough - and mature enough - for F1.

Maturity is an area where Vips has become much improved in the last two years. He is easily among the best five - probably the top three - drivers in 2019 F3, as he was in the European series last season. But in neither year has he had the best team or machinery, as Prema has been the place to be in both championships.

But Vips proved in Austria that Prema was beatable in a race - and one set by qualifying, not a reversed grid - as he and Hitech ended its rival's race one streak.

Because of the superlicence points situation, Vips could very well be the most likely option of the current crop of Red Bull F1 juniors to make it to Toro Rosso for 2020. But he's going to have to have one hell of a second half of the season to convince Marko he's ready now, and doesn't need another season in the lower categories.

Returning to the Kvyat comparison, next year Vips would be the same age as Kvyat was - 19 - when he made his F1 debut. So it's not out of the question. While Kvyat's F1 career has been rollercoaster-spec at best, his initial jump from GP3 to F1 was deemed a relative success with Toro Rosso. It was the far-too-early jump to the senior team in 2015 that arguably stunted his growth.

So an F3-to-F1 move for Vips could work well as it did for Kvyat, if Vips is then given enough time to grow and adapt at Toro Rosso.

Jack Benyon

The 'where did he come from?' contender

Name Patricio O'Ward
Age 20
From Monterrey, Mexico
Current championship position 22nd in IndyCar
Superlicence points 15 (TBC)

The Mexican driver has come out of nowhere - at least in F1 terms - since May, rising to the top tier of the Red Bull pool in a short period of time based on a few impressive IndyCar outings and a kind word from Trevor Carlin to Helmut Marko.

O'Ward has clearly impressed with both his personality and ability to be thrust straight into Super Formula in place of Ticktum and to also get F2 outings.

But by the end of this year O'Ward will still have very limited experience of the F1 tracks, and the Pirelli tyres that led him to receive a self-proclaimed "ass whipping" on his F2 debut last weekend.

O'Ward is definitely ambitious and the 20-year-old has got his eyes firmly set on F1

Only Marko knows what O'Ward has done to become a real option for F1 so quickly. That's nothing against O'Ward, he appears to be a lovely chap and a very quick driver, but that needs to be proven consistently at this level to demonstrate that F1 is an immediate option.

His superlicence situation is also questionable as he's on somewhere around 20 at the minute - uncertainty over how Pro Mazda and Indy Lights grid sizes and IMSA SportsCar Championship class systems affect his allocation underlines how unnecessarily convoluted that system has become.

Even in the best case scenario under our calculations he's going to be a fair few points short and he won't make those up in Super Formula this season as he's entering halfway through.

So if Marko wants to fast-track O'Ward to F1, it seems it will have to be with another season of junior single-seaters to grab those all important points. A lot can happen between now and the end of the year though, especially when it comes to the FIA and superlicence points.

O'Ward is definitely ambitious though, and the 20-year-old has got his eyes firmly set on F1.

"The focus is to get the licence points as quick as we can," he says. "[The Red Bull deal] is focused to Formula 1 and it's something you only dream of as a kid. Whichever racing driver tells you he doesn't want to be in F1 is lying.

"It's the peak of everything in the world. Who doesn't want to be around that? It's very appealing, especially when that possibility becomes available."

Jack Benyon

The well travelled junior with a point to prove

Name Nobuharu Matsushita
Age 25
From Tokyo, Japan
Current championship position 8th in F2
Superlicence points 10

Like Vips, Matsushita scored a very, very important victory last weekend. He won the Formula 2 feature race at the Red Bull Ring to remind Honda that it wasn't a waste of time to return him to F2 this season after an ill-fated run in Super Formula last year.

It's been a tricky season for 'Nobu' on his F2 return; he's struggled with the Pirelli tyres and the heavier F2 car introduced last year while he was back in Japan. He has also been hit with a number of technical issues, one of which robbed him of a chance to contend for the feature race win after taking pole in Baku.

At 25, Matsushita is the second oldest driver on this list, but unlike Naoki Yamamoto, below, he doesn't yet have the superlicence points and is yet to deliver the kind of headline season that catapults a driver into F1. This year is no different.

There's clearly talent there and the Honda factor will no doubt have him in contention. But a F2 stunning run over the second half of the season will be needed to convince the powers that be that he has the metal to make it, and to award him enough licence points.

One person who isn't questioning his chances is Matsushita himself. After getting on top of the F2 car and tyres, he's still confident he can close the gap on the leaders - but he trails top driver Nyck de Vries by 91 points.

It will be an uphill struggle to close that gap, both in F2 and on his fellow F1 hopefuls for a Toro Rosso seat. But Albon proved last year that anything is possible when it comes to a Red Bull seat.

Jack Benyon

The rank outsider (or is he?)

Name Naoki Yamamoto
Age 30
From Tochigi, Japan
Current championship position 1st in Super Formula, 11th in Super GT
Superlicence Eligible now

The best-placed driver to race for Toro Rosso in terms of qualification (other than Gasly) - because he actually is eligible for the holy grail, a superlicence - is not even one of Red Bull's juniors. It's Honda's long-time driver Naoki Yamamoto.

A 30-year-old rookie who has not raced outside Japan would be the mother of all leftfield choices by Toro Rosso. Yet Yamamoto's class is evident. Last season he won titles in Super Formula (against Matsushita and three ex-F1 drivers: Kazuki Nakajima, Kamui Kobayashi and Narain Karthikeyan) and Super GT (alongside Jenson Button).

A number of current and recent F1 drivers have raced in Super Formula during their careers and it's considered a viable proving ground for those looking to ascend to the top of single seaters. And Yamamoto is constantly at the top of the order, leading the championship again this year despite the fact that its new car has proved tricky to master and has shaken-up the order.

He is considered, by GT partner Button, to be completely worthy of an F1 shot. And there is the prospect of some kind of evaluation, as Honda is keen to see Yamamoto in an F1 car in a Friday practice session. The possibilty of a run-out at Suzuka, which he knows well and would be big for local fans, should not be discounted.

Whether that would form the basis of a genuine assessment of Yamamoto's F1 credentials is only known by Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Honda. Leaping to F1 would be a major risk and huge personal challenge for Yamamoto himself. But this is a driver that ticks several boxes, so it would be foolish if he is not under consideration.

Scott Mitchell