Christian Horner "100 percent sure" Verstappen will be at Red Bull F1 in 2021

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is "100 percent sure" Max Verstappen will be driving for the team in F1 2021 amid questions of an exit clause in the Dutchman’s contract.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is "100 percent sure" Max Verstappen will be driving for the team in F1 2021 amid questions of an exit clause in the Dutchman’s contract.

At the turn of the year, Verstappen signed a new three-year deal extending his stay with the team until 2023.

Sebastian Vettel was contracted until the end of 2015 but a performance clause in his contract meant he could leave Red Bull a year early, which he did for Ferrari at the end of the 2014 season.

When asked about whether Verstappen has a similar clause in his contract, Horner replied: “Well obviously the contact between the driver and the team is always going to be confidential, there will always be speculation regarding it but I’m a hundred percent certain Max Verstappen will be in a Red Bull racing car next year.”

Technical chief Adrian Newey has been linked with a move to Aston Martin.

Again, Horner was quick to play down suggestions that Newey would be leaving the team anytime soon.

“Yeah, the situation with Adrian – he’s been with us for 14 years, he’s very happy within the team, he enjoys working within the environment, he’s obviously taken more of a step back in more recent years but he’s still motivated and yeah, he will absolutely be with the team next year, without any doubt,” Horner said.

Red Bull has never finished on the podium at the Russian Grand Prix and Horner admits the team is set for a difficult weekend after struggling in practice.

“It’s been a bit of a bogey track for us over the last five years or so,” Horner added. “I think Mercedes have won every single event here, so they are obviously very much the favourites for this race, yet anything can happen.

“We’ve had a frustrating last couple of races and obviously we come here… we know it’s going to be more of a challenge, but hopefully we’ll survive the weekend and then there are some tracks coming up that hopefully play a little more to our strengths.”