Red Bull F1 team boss Christian Horner says he’s aware his lead driver Max Verstappen “would naturally be top of the list” for Mercedes should it lose Lewis Hamilton after 2021.
Hamilton’s protracted contract extension talks with Mercedes meant he spent the first month of this year as a free agent, before finally agreeing to a one-year extension with the Silver Arrows.
Though Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has insisted that both sides have their sights set on continuing beyond that, and that they simply need more time to hash out any longer-term commitments, the deal creates the distinct possibility of Hamilton walking away at the end of 2021, right as F1 introduces its new-generation cars.
Asked whether Hamilton’s short deal created a concern that Mercedes would thus try to poach Verstappen, who is seen as the other standout driver on the current grid, Horner said: “I’m sure that should Lewis decide to stop, then Max would naturally be the driver at the top of the list, but they also have George Russell, they’ve also got other drivers obviously available to them.
“Again, it’s all down to relationships and us producing a competitive car.
“There’s no guarantees for 2022. It’s a complete clean sheet of paper. So if there’s going to be a significant mix up of the order, one would assume it’s going to be with that big regulation change.”
Mercedes has won every drivers’ and teams’ title since Verstappen debuted in F1 in 2015, and the German marque heads into the upcoming campaign as a favourite yet again – even though Verstappen’s commanding win in the 2020 season finale in Abu Dhabi has raised hopes of a 2021 title challenge.
Red Bull announced a new Verstappen deal at the start of last year that’s supposed to keep him with the energy drink giant through 2023, but this contract has been long understood to contain some sort of performance clauses that would allow for an early termination – as was the case already with his previous deal.
Some believed that Verstappen’s current deal has a clause tied to the future of engine supplier Honda, which announced a few months on from his renewal that it would be leaving F1 at the end of 2021.
But following Monday’s announcement that Red Bull would take over Honda’s engines until the end of the current power unit rules cycle in 2024, Horner clarified that whatever clause exists in Verstappen’s contract is simply dependent on performance rather than the specific status of the engine supplier.
“Look, all drivers have safeguards [in their deals],” Horner said. “And the reality is that, as there has always been, there is an element of performance related to Max’s contract.
“I’m not going to go into what that is.
“It doesn’t relate to the power unit in any way. It’s just a binary performance at a certain measurement in time.”
Horner has indicated, however, that the team would see little benefit in holding Verstappen to a contract against his will if his heart was set on a move elsewhere.
“As with all these things, though, to force a driver that doesn’t want to be there… it’s more about relationships than contracts, and you only pull a contract out of a drawer when you’ve got a problem,” he said.
“In my experience, I think the relationship with Max is very strong. He believes in the project, he believes in what we’re doing. He sees the investment that Red Bull is making.
“This recent commitment on the powertrain, he believes in the people within the team and working within the team.
“So I’m confident that we won’t need to refer to any contractual clauses, I think that it will ultimately be down to us to deliver a competitive car.
“That’s what he wants, that’s what we want. He needs that we need that. So in that respect, we’re both in an identical situation.”
