Red Bull team principal Christian Horner gave a coy response over whether the team could bring in Carlos Sainz in 2025, praising the ‘unemployed driver’ for his Australian Grand Prix victory.
Only one driver has beaten Max Verstappen or Red Bull in the last 26 races – and that man is Carlos Sainz, who followed up his win in Singapore last season with a sensational victory in Melbourne on Sunday.
Sainz is a former Red Bull academy driver and he was Verstappen‘s team-mate at Toro Rosso in 2015, where he scored fewer points, but beat him in qualifying on Saturdays.
And Horner acknowledges, as does Helmut Marko despite his usual humiliating discourse with a departing driver, that he shouldn’t have been let go. Maybe now, even Fred Vasseur is thinking the same thing after replacing Sainz with Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
“Based on a performance like that, you can’t rule out any possibility,” Horner said of Sainz in Australia.
“We want to have the best driver pairing, and sometimes you have to look outside [the team]. Today’s race was won by an unemployed driver, so the market is reasonably fluid.”
In the world of F1, Horner‘s words could be interpreted in many different ways – from a warning to Checo to high praise for Sainz.
Sainz talking to several teams
Certainly, no one in the paddock doubts Sainz‘s worth, precisely because of what they saw during the race. He is not highly rated by the British reporters, but certainly, he is by those who count: team bosses and colleagues.
“Underrated? I think everyone knows the value of Carlos in the paddock. He’s one of the most highly rated drivers in the paddock,” Charles Leclerc, his Ferrari team-mate, said. “He has been extremely strong several times. So I don’t think he’s underestimated, I think everybody knows what Carlos is worth.
“And that’s why I’ve said many times that I’m not too worried about his future, because I’m sure many, many team bosses are…. He doesn’t say it, but for sure they are talking to him!”
However, he could miss out on Red Bull to another Spaniard. German journalist Ralf Bach, a reporter with more than three decades in the F1 paddock, assures that the chosen one is Fernando Alonso.
He has always been a target for Horner, who has tried to sign him on several occasions, and talks with the Aston Martin star, 42, are said to be at an advanced stage, with a deal close to being finalized.