Australian Grand Prix: Horner names Sainz as candidate for Red Bull drive in 2025،
MELBOURNE, Australia — Christian Horner has hinted that Australian Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz will be in the mix for a Red Bull drive next year.
As Lewis Hamilton prepares to leave Mercedes to join Ferrari in 2025, Sainz is out of form at the end of this season and represents one of the key players in the driver market.
He has already been linked with Mercedes, Aston Martin and Sauber (which will become an Audi factory team in 2026), but Red Bull is also a viable destination, with Sergio Perez out of contract at the end of this year and the future of Max Verstappen. less certain after the turmoil within the team's senior management in early 2024.
Red Bull has several options for 2025 if it needs to replace any of its drivers, including Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda who currently drive for its junior team, RB.
However, Ricciardo's slow start to the year and apparent reluctance to promote Honda-backed Tsunoda to Red Bull means Sainz, who won Sunday's Australian Grand Prix just two weeks after an appendectomy, is also in the running.
“Yuki is a very fast driver, we know that, but I think we want to feel the best possible duo at Red Bull Racing and sometimes you also have to look outside the pool,” said Horner, Red team principal. Bull.
“You won an unemployed driver very quickly today. The market is reasonably fluid with some drivers.”
Horner joked that Sainz appears to be the only driver capable of beating Red Bull at the moment after he ended Verstappen's 10-race winning streak in Singapore last year and did the same with a nine-race streak Sunday in Melbourne.
“I mean Carlos is the only driver to beat Red Bull, so he seems to be our nemesis,” Horner said.
Sainz made his F1 debut in 2015 with Red Bull's junior team, then known as Toro Rosso, but left for Renault in 2017 after Red Bull promoted Verstappen to its senior team ahead of him in 2016.
Asked whether Sainz could make a return to the Red Bull fold, Horner added: “Look, I mean, based on a performance like that, you can't rule out any possibilities.
“I think you just want to take the time and obviously Checo [Perez] was compromised today. He's also had a great start to the season, so we're not in despair.”
