2020: Coronavirus hiatus and a shock announcement by Honda
Season: 17 races, 2 wins, 1 poles, 3 fastest laps, 11 podiums
Drivers championship: 3rd place, 214 points
Happy with the hard work Honda had put into their engine development programme in their first year together, Verstappen began 2020 by committing himself to another three years with Red Bull in the belief that together they would be able to catch and overhaul Mercedes in the championship. But just as everyone was pulling on their firesuits for the first practice session of 2020 in Melbourne, the world turned upside down. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic stopped everyone and everything in their tracks around the globe: here was one obstacle even Verstappen couldn't smash his way through.
When the season did finally get underway in July, Verstappen suffered a power unit failure in the first race in Austria. There would be four more retirements over the course of the year, and in a season limited to just 17 races he was left with too much lost ground to recover on the Mercedes juggernaut which was romping to another brace of titles, a total of seven apiece for team and driver. However that's not to overlook Verstappen's otherwise remarkable run of success in 2020: in all but one of the races that he did complete, he was on the podium - twice as winner. His worst finish all year was sixth in Turkey.
Verstappen's old days of youthful "red mist" appeared to be largely behind him, although there was controversy over some politically incorrect bad language he directed at Lance Stroll after the pair collided during practice in Portugal. But as the end of the campaign neared in October there was a huge shock for the team when Honda abruptly announced that it would quitting Formula 1 at the end of 2021, depriving Red Bull of the crucial power units that had played such a key role in turning their form around. It left the very future of Red Bull in the sport in jeopardy, not to mention that of Verstappen himself.
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